Dear member,

Due to the rise in Covid infections and the very low number of takers for off-line seats we have decided to make this July event an online only event.  For the majority of you who chose the online option there is no change, but apologies to those who wanted an off-line event.

It is two years since President Moon Jae-in announced the digital new deal.  The digital world has advanced globally outside of Korea, and inside.   Our KBF meeting on July 21 will try to map out the digital changes in progress and the successes and failures.   We will be joined by Eric Kim who will briefly outline the developments he is seeing in his digital business.

Although the US talks about digital in the IPEF, some of the closest links are with Singapore that has provided a lot of the investment in digital services and in cloud and date warehouses. Korea signed a digital partnership agreement with Singapore at the end of 2021 and is negotiating others.  Collecting the data and the dissecting the different activities has been an enlightening experience I look forward to sharing with you.

We will look at the Korean leaders of digital change; amongst them Kakao, Naver, Coupang, Hyundai Card, Daou Kiwoom and SK Telecom, and their hardware underwriters, Samsung and SK Hynix, and at where money is being made and lost in digitalization and digital services.  We will also see how the international players are doing; amongst them Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, IBM and SAP. 

Many multinationals are looking at their Korean subsidiary as a digital leader and experimentation platform in terms of marketing and delivery and we will look at one or two successes.

Join us on July 21 online to discuss whether Korea deserves the position it is seeking as a key player in the digital space, or whether the human resource needs of the digital era  or other constraints are holding it back.