Forum Held at Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry on the 8th
"Emergence of Social Problems That Cannot Be Solved by Injecting Money"
Issues Like Low Birth Rate Accelerate... Need for Change in Approach
Emphasis on Social Roles of Economic Actors Such as Companies
"Need to Internalize Social Value in the Economy"
Choi Taewon, chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (and chairman of SK Group), said at a forum held at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Jung-gu, Seoul on the 8th under the theme "A New Search for a Sustainable Society," that "There are now social problems that cannot be solved even by pouring in money, so we need to change the existing formula for success."
Choi Taewon, chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, is delivering a greeting at a forum on the theme of "A New Search for a Sustainable Society" held at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Jung-gu, Seoul on the 8th. Photo by Yonhap News
Choi stated, "I have doubts about whether the current capitalist system is functioning well for society." He pointed out that recent social issues, such as the low birth rate, are becoming more complex and occurring at a faster pace, making it inefficient to try to solve them with money alone.
Choi believes that it is necessary to bring social value and externalities into the system, and to provide incentives to various economic actors, including companies, when they contribute to solving problems. He explained, "Because the capitalist system has been designed so that companies only need to make money, effects and stories that could create other social values have been neglected," and added, "We need to internalize social value within the economic system."
He further stated, "Telling people to solve social problems with good intentions alone cannot satisfy the speed required to address these issues, so it is necessary to provide economic incentives to those who can actually solve the problems."
In fact, SK Group has established the Social Value Research Institute, a non-profit foundation, and has been operating the Social Performance Incentive (SPC) program since 2015. The SPC program monetizes and measures the social value created by social enterprises and provides corresponding incentives. Over the past 10 years, about 500 social enterprises have participated in the program, achieving approximately 500 billion won in social problem-solving outcomes, and SK has paid out about 70 billion won in incentives as rewards.
At the forum, experts diagnosed Korea's current situation as a complex crisis, where social issues such as population extinction, regional imbalance, and the climate crisis are rapidly intensifying, in addition to a rapidly changing economic environment characterized by the AI transformation, low growth, and restructuring of the trade environment.
They agreed on the need for solidarity among the government, businesses, and society based on a "new entrepreneurial spirit." Kim Jaegoo, former president of the Korean Academic Society of Business Administration (and professor at Myongji University), who gave a presentation on the topic "The Evolution of Entrepreneurship and the Diagnosis of Korea's Reality," emphasized, "There needs to be a national consensus on the crisis, and all stakeholders in our society must jointly design, participate in, and take responsibility for an innovation ecosystem. The new entrepreneurial spirit must play a role as a new paradigm."
Lee Junghyun, former senior vice president of the Korean Academic Society of Business Administration (and professor at Myongji University), also argued, "Companies need to internalize the function of solving social problems from the product and service design stage," and added, "Beyond strategies focused on profits and shareholder value, we must internalize social value as a core management value and create a structure where it circulates back as economic value."
The event, co-hosted by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry's Entrepreneurship Round Table (ERT) and the Korean Social Science Council, was attended by Chairman Choi, as well as major academic societies representing Korea in economics, society, administration, and politics, the Citizens' Coalition for Economic Justice, the Korean Bar Association, and others. The ERT is a business council launched by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry in 2022, and currently about 1,850 companies are participating.
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