PM holds 2045 Strategy Committee meeting, selects 17 core tasks

The South Korean government convened a second meeting of the 2045 Strategy Committee on August 12 to outline a blueprint for the nation's future and identified 17 core tasks to be completed by the end of the year, officials disclosed. Established in May, the committee aims to devise long-term development strategies to effectively address complex issues like polarization, demographic shifts, regional decline, and climate change.

The symbolic year of 2045 represents the centennial of Korea's liberation from Japan's colonial rule from 1910 to 1945. Prime Minister Han Seong-sook emphasized during the meeting that the strategy should encompass everyone, not just the government, and stressed the importance of gathering wisdom from all generations. The National Research Council for Economics, Humanities, and Social Sciences presented findings highlighting the country's current polycrisis involving AI transformation, demographic and climate crises, and geopolitical competition while navigating a "double bottleneck" situation.

This predicament sees cutting-edge technologies failing to yield tangible results, coupled with a weak foundation for social consensus. To overcome these challenges, the committee recommended redesigning the innovative growth engine and the social operating system to achieve the envisioned future.