COVID-19  •  Bilans d’évènement

Web Conference - The Post Covid-19 World with J. ATTALI, KIM Gunn, KIM Yeon-Hee, and J.-P. RAFFARIN

The FKCCI turned to the future by organizing on June 9th a webinar on the post Covid-19 world gathering 350 participants!

The webinar gathered high-level economic and political figures from France and Korea. Mr. Jacques ATTALI, Former Advisor of the French President, world renowned economist and writer, and Ms. KIM Yeon-Hee, Managing Director of BCG Korea, were invited as main speakers. In introduction of the session, the FKCCI had also the honor to welcome Mr. Jean-Pierre RAFFARIN, Former French Prime Minister, President of the Leaders for Peace Foundation, Mr. KIM Gunn, Vice-Minister of the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and H.E. Mr Philippe LEFORT, French Ambassador to Korea.

The post Covid-19 era will raise the issue of the shift of balance in international relations and is challenging the notion of multilateralism. Indeed, for Mr. RAFFARIN, “the virus has declared a new Cold War between the US and China. International relations will be structured around these two superpowers”. For the former Prime Minister, key points are raised by the crisis: a new phase of tensions between China and the USA and the question of Europe’s position on the international scene, a rising dialectic between authoritarian regimes and democracies, and the reform of multilateralism in front of unilateralism. In the same line of ideas, Mr Kim GUNN said “some say we will witness rising nationalism in the post Covid-19 era, especially in the economic sectors. […] We are at the crossroad of two alternatives: one to a more inclusive and universal future, the other to an exclusive and isolated future”.

Regarding Korea’s position, speakers highlighted that the Covid-19 enabled to strengthen Korea’s soft power. “The rising power of the Republic of Korea is a positive factor for independence, sovereignty and its relations with France”, H.E Philippe LEFORT said. In this context, Mr Jacques ATTALI expressed regret that Europe followed the Chinese model in the fight against Covid-19 instead of the Korean model. Indeed, he praises the Korean strategy in his new book “The Economy of Life”, a worldwide inquiry on how countries handled the crisis and its consequences on the world.

However, the speakers highlighted some positive prospects brought by the crisis. Mr. ATTALI highlighted that Korea proved that a democracy could fight efficiently the crisis. Civil societies showed they could get mobilized at a large scale worldwide. “We get benefits from being altruistic”, Mr ATTALI said.

The economic actors are also adapting to new sanitary norms. “We are headed towards a more and more virtual world. It has fantastic advantages but inconveniences as well”, Mr. ATTALI said, while expressing concerns whether the virtual era would break the social link and emulation necessary to companies. An idea supported by Ms. KIM Yeon-Hee, who made a presentation on the evolution of consumption patterns post Covid-19 marked by the explosion of online contents, more and more used not only by young generations, but also by older generations.