On Tuesday, March 26, 2024, PERI held the “2024 PERI Vision Forum and Tax Reform Seminar” at the Oak Room of the Hilton Garden Inn in Gangnam, Seoul.
The event was attended by key figures such as James Kim, President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea; Cheoljoo Kim, Chairman of the Korea Life Insurance Association; Donghan Yoon, Chairman of Kolmar; Yonggap Lee, Advisor at Naver; Myungsoo Lee, Representative of the Hwawoo Law Firm; Junghoon Jung, Director of the Tax Policy Office at the Ministry of Economy and Finance; and Yongju Park, Director of the Korea Fiscal Information Service. Additionally, representatives of overseas think tanks congratulated the forum via video, including Tatsuo Hatta, Chairman of the Asian Growth Research Institute (AGI) in Japan; Yi Peng, President of the Pangoal Institute in China; and Timothy Smeeding, former Director of the Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP) in the United States.
At the “2024 PERI Vision Forum and Tax Reform Seminar,” PERI shared the activities over the past year and unveiled new plans for 2024. Additionally, there was a session where Junghoon Jung, Director of the Tax Policy Office at the Ministry of Economy and Finance; Chongbum An, Presindent of PERI; and Cheolin Lee, President of the Korean Association of Public Finance, exchanged opinions on the necessity and direction of tax reform.
During the tax reform seminar, there was an emphasis on the need for tax reform to adapt to domestic and international environmental changes and to address the challenges of low birth rates and an aging society. It was highlighted that tax reform should rectify unfair tax practices influenced by anti-business sentiments. Moreover, it was noted that for such reform to take place, normalization of corporate taxation, inheritance tax reform, and adjustments to tax support systems are necessary.
Following the tax reform seminar, president Chongbum An shared PERI’s major activities in 2023 and revealed plans for 2024. In 2023, PERI hosted symposiums with renowned scholars and experts in various policy fields globally and published a total of four volumes of the PERI Policy Series.
In particular, PERI officially launched the AI-based one-stop policy platform “askPERI” on March 5, 2024, providing integrated search functionality and online policy consulting services for the vast amount of policy information dispersed across government departments, the National Assembly, and public institutions, totaling over 27 million records.
President Chongbum An described askPERI as a technology-intensive platform, with patent applications underway for 10 models and services related to collecting and analyzing policy information. He expressed expectations that askPERI would revolutionize the policy consulting ecosystem by providing low-cost, high-efficiency online policy consulting services to users with policy consulting demands. Additionally, he mentioned plans for askPERI to lead the policy information market domestically and export the business model overseas, supporting the government’s initiative for the Digital Platform Government.
PERI outlined its major plans for 2024, including hosting the 2024 PERI Symposium, planning for inheritance tax reform, and developing educational materials for national economic education. It expressed determination to expand the scope of activities in 2024.
<PERI,Policy Evaluation Research Institute>
