[KH Biz Forum] Forum maps out path forward for Korea post-pandemic

Green, digital and metaverse among keywords for the future of industries

By Song Su-hyun, The Korea Herald - South Korean business representatives, policymakers and government officials gathered at the annual Korea Herald Biz Forum on Tuesday to share insights on new trends of industries in the post-COVID-19 era. Under the theme “Shape of the Future: Trends to Rule Industries as World Rebounds from Pandemic,” this year’s forum was held at the Shilla Seoul and was livestreamed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Among the speakers of the event, in its fourth iteration, were Lee Jeong-dong, professor of technology management, economics and policy at Seoul National University, who served as a special adviser to President Moon Jae-in from 2019 till May this year; Hong Su-yeol, head of Resource Recycling Consulting; Cha In-hyok, CEO of CJ OliveNetworks and Jeon Jin-soo, vice president at SK Telecom.

The speakers delivered lectures on burgeoning new trends in the wake of the pandemic and those that are expected to reshape the industrial landscape worldwide. Two main topics that all speakers had a consensus on throughout the forum were digital transformation and climate change. Politics and government representatives also called for the importance of digital transformation and environment-conscious business practices.

Park Byeong-seug, speaker of the National Assembly, called on businesses to take action to change under the government’s Digital Green New Deal program. “Rapid digital transformation and the crisis of climate change are demanding innovations in our lives and in the paradigm of business management,” Park said in his congratulatory speech at the forum. “Companies are responding to those changes by innovating digital technologies and environmental, society and governance management. Hesitant businesses would fall behind, while indecisive countries would lose out.”

Minister of Science and ICT Lim Hye-sook also delivered congratulatory remarks through a prerecorded video. “As contactless activities have become part of our lives under the pandemic, Korea is witnessing digital transformation accelerate across the economy and society,” Lim said.Owing to the change, Korea’s information communications technology-related exports marked the largest of all sectors in September, the minister mentioned. “To escape from the COVID-19 crisis, each country is fiercely competing to advance technologies,” she said. “The government is making efforts to establish digital infrastructure to turn the economy digital-based and become a leading digital country.”

James Kim, chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea, described how US business are coping with the changes. “The COVID-19 pandemic has forced businesses to accelerate digital transformation. Companies are now utilizing cloud services and virtual meetings more than ever before. Even at AmCham, we are now in complete digital transformation mode,” Kim said. “Today’s event is a hybrid online-offline format only possible because of amazing technologies from US companies such as AWS, Facebook, Google, IBM, and Microsoft,” he continued. “We’re now able to generate bigger audiences with better quality content, across many borders and time zones with more ease and speed.” “Now in the post-COVID era, we will witness new business models where innovation across the globe will be a game changer,” the chairman added.

In the keynote speech, SNU professor Lee talked about the role of a nation to improve its innovation capability and survive in the rapidly changing environment. “For nations, technological sovereignty plays a key role in gaining economic security, and we need bipartisan partnership for technological sovereignty and also need cooperation between the government and the private sector,” Lee said.

Hong, head of Resource Recycling Consulting, stressed the need to better understand the concept of a “circular economy,” in which products find new life continuously through recycling, not end up being thrown away after a single -- or two to three times’ -- use. “Yet, standards are unclear about what companies need to do for a circular economy,” Hong said. “A wrong direction would only lead to green washing.” “Companies need to approach to the core of the industrial waste problems they generate through their business activities,” he said.

CJ OliveNetworks’ Cha introduced how the CJ affiliate is rapidly going digital through a variety of projects undertaken at CJ Group in its journey of digital transformation. SKT Vice President Jeon presented the company’s latest metaverse platform, “ifland,” and discussed upcoming opportunities on the platform that is growing into a new arena of social, cultural and economic activity.

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“급속도로 진행되는 디지털 전환과 기후변화 위기는 우리 삶과 경영 관리 패러다임에 혁신을 요구하고 있습니다.”(박병석 국회의장) 코리아헤럴드는 26일 서울 중구 신라호텔에서 ‘비즈포럼’을 개최하고 미래 산업의 3대 키워드로 ‘그린’, ‘디지털’, ‘메타버스’를 제시했다. 이번 포럼의 주제는 ‘다가오는 미래 : 포스트 코로나 시대, 산업의 핵심 트렌드’였다. 디지털 전환과 기후변화가 주요 화제로 다뤄졌다. 오프라인 강연과 함께 온라인을 통한 생중계도 동시 진행됐다.

연사들은 팬데믹 이후 새롭게 부상하고 있는 새로운 트렌드와 전 세계 산업 환경을 재편할 것으로 예상되는 미래상에 대해 강의했다. 축사자로 나선 박 의장은 “기업들은 디지털 기술과 ESG(환경·사회·지배구조)를 혁신하며 변화에 대응하고 있다”며 “이 같은 변화에 주저하는 기업들은 뒤쳐질 것이고, 우유부단한 국가는 패하고 말 것”이라고 강조했다. 임혜숙 과학기술정보통신부 장관도 축사를 통해 “팬데믹이 진행되는 동안 비대면 활동이 우리 삶의 일부가 됐고, 이 과정에서 디지털 전환이 경제와 사회를 넘나들며 급속도로 확대되는 것을 실감했다”고 전했다.이어 “코로나19 위기 극복을 위해 각국은 기술 고도화에 주력하고 있다”며 “우리 정부도 디지털 기반 경제로 전환하고 디지털을 선도하는 국가를 위해 노력하고 있다”고 밝혔다.이와 관련 기조연설을 맡은 이정동 서울대학교 교수(전 청와대 경제과학특별보좌관)는 “국가의 경우 기술주권이 경제안보 확보에 핵심적인 역할을 한다”며 “기술주권을 위한 초당적 협력과 정부와 민간의 협력도 필요하다”고 역설했다. 

제임스 김 주한미국상공회의소 회장은 “기업은 이제 그 어느 때보다 클라우드 서비스와 가상회의를 활용하고 있다”며 “더 쉽고 빠르게 많은 국경과 시간대에 걸쳐 더 나은 품질의 콘텐츠로 더 많은 고객을 생성할 수 있고, 전 세계의 혁신이 판도를 바꾸는 새로운 비즈니스 모델을 목격하게 될 것”이라고 말했다. 홍수열 자원순환사회경제연구소 소장은 ‘순환경제’를 강조하며 “기업이 순환 경제를 위해 무엇을 해야 하는지에 대한 기준이 불분명하다. 기업 활동을 통해 발생하는 산업폐기물 문제의 핵심에 접근해야 한다”고 말했다. 전진수 SK텔레콤 메타버스 컴퍼니장은 자사 최신 메타버스 플랫폼 ‘이프랜드(ifland)’와 함께 아바타가 가상 공간에 모여 함께 영상을 시청하는 ‘옥수수 소셜VR’, 홀로그램을 인공지능 플랫폼 ‘누구(NUGU)’에 결합한 차세대 서비스 ‘홀로박스’ 등을 소개했다. 차인혁 CJ올리브네트웍스 대표는 디지털 전환 여정에서 CJ그룹이 진행한 다양한 프로젝트를 통해 CJ 계열사가 빠르게 디지털화하는 과정을 인사이트로 제시했다.

출처: http://news.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20211026000807&md=20211027003019_BL http://news.heraldcorp.com/view.php?ud=20211027000517

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