Panel Discussion: Changes after the Presidential Elections?
On May 9 Moon Jae-in was elected as the new President of South Korea. The following day the Korea office of Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF Korea) and the Korean-German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (KGCCI) paired up to invite to a discussion regarding the challenges the new President will face. The invitation met an extraordinary interest in the German community, which had the opportunity to learn and debate about this topic with experts from various institutions. FNF Korea and KGCCI welcomed about seventy guests to join the discussion.
The panel included distinguished participants such as the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany, Mr. Stephan Auer, German Chairman of KGCCI and representative of Brose Korea, Mr. Stefan Halusa as well as Mr. Yoon Deok-ryong, Senior Research Fellow of the Korea Institute of Economic Policy. Furthermore, the media’s perspective was well represented in the panel with the attendance of Mr. Christoph Neidhart from the “Süddeutsche Zeitung“, based in Tokyo, and Executive Editor and Chief Operating Officer of Korea JoongAng Daily, Mr. Ryu Kwon-ha. The event started with welcoming remarks by Mrs. Barbara Zollmann, President and CEO of KGCCI, and Mr. Lars-André Richter, Project Director of FNF Korea. Mr. Rainer Heufers guided as the moderator through the lively panel discussion, focusing on what the new presidency under Moon Jae-in means for the economic and foreign policy of South Korea.
Moon Jae-in was the candidate of the progressive Democratic Party. The election had to be scheduled earlier, due to the impeachment of former president Park Geun-hye. The new head of state dominated the polls by a majority of 41 percent. Moon pledged to improve the welfare state, create more jobs in the public sector, strengthen the democratic structures, tackle the rising air pollution and try to improve inner-korean relations.
