PwC Launches Korea-Japan Public Cooperation Center to Jointly Address Aging Population and Other Challenges

Samil PwC announced on August 26 that it has launched the "PwC Korea-Japan Public Cooperation Center" (hereinafter referred to as the Public Cooperation Center) to jointly address structural issues in the public sector faced by both South Korea and Japan.

The Public Cooperation Center is a strategic collaboration platform aimed at fostering sustainable public service innovation and creating social value by combining the experiences and expertise of both countries in tackling complex and significant societal challenges such as population aging, regional depopulation, digital transformation, and the climate crisis. In Japan, the Government & Public Sector (G&PS) division of PwC will participate, leveraging its accumulated experience in areas such as responding to an aging population, digital government, and regional development to jointly design strategies and implementation plans applicable to the domestic public sector.

Samil PwC explained, "As the Korea-Japan summit last week resulted in an agreement to establish a consultative body between the two countries to address social structural issues such as low birth rates, population aging, and regional depopulation, the Public Cooperation Center is expected to contribute to the development of practical policy responses and implementation strategies."

Through the Public Cooperation Center, Samil PwC plans to provide comprehensive services across the public sector, including policy planning and execution, digital transformation, financial and organizational innovation, community support, and ESG strategies. In particular, policy design based on Evidence-Based Policy Making (EBPM), public service innovation, and the establishment of carbon neutrality strategies are expected to make meaningful contributions to the future direction of public policy in both countries.

The Public Cooperation Center will be operated around nine key focus areas. These include: ▲ "Net Zero," which encompasses carbon-neutral city strategies; ▲ "Smart City," which aims to build sustainable cities by integrating new technologies; ▲ "Welfare," which addresses welfare policies for an aging population; ▲ "Public Policy Initiative (PPI)," which includes policy proposals based on university collaboration and public-private partnership models; ▲ "Digital," which covers local government digital transformation (DX) strategies and cloud infrastructure optimization; ▲ "Industry & Technology (I&T)," which includes hydrogen and energy industry strategies and technology commercialization; ▲ "Healthcare," which covers hospital development strategies and medical DX; ▲ "Talent Transformation (TX)," which focuses on resolving local workforce shortages and building re-skilling platforms; and ▲ "Transportation," which includes infrastructure operation strategies for railways, aviation, and more. In particular, in line with the national balanced growth strategy and the goal of becoming one of the top three AI powerhouse nations emphasized in the recently announced "Five-Year National Administration Plan" by the National Planning Committee, the Public Cooperation Center will also focus on developing collaboration models for establishing regional industrial hubs and innovating public services based on AI.

These initiatives go beyond simple benchmarking and will be developed into policy proposals and implementation strategies through joint research and collaborative projects between experts from both countries. Samil PwC is working with PwC Japan on ongoing collaboration efforts, including publishing reports in each field, holding joint seminars, preparing policy proposals, and carrying out joint projects, with the aim of maximizing synergy between the public sectors of both countries.

Kim Byungil, Head (Partner) of the PwC Korea-Japan Public Cooperation Center, stated, "Japan is a country that has experienced social challenges similar to Korea, such as population aging, regional depopulation, and digital transformation, ahead of us. The G&PS division of PwC Japan has achieved remarkable growth in addressing these issues," adding, "The Public Cooperation Center will play a pivotal role in applying this experience to Korea and establishing a sustainable cooperation model between the two countries."