Back in Feb 2026, when we first got the email from the Foundation, we first thought it was a spam. But, given the fact that the lead director of this conference is Daniele Franco, former Ministry of Economy and Finance of Italy, we thought that for this to be a spam, that would be a huge identity theft.
I haven’t even had a chance to meet Korea’s former Ministry of Economy and Finance yet, so just by the fact that i could attend a conference that a G7 country’s Ministry of Econ / Finance already is one factor that it is difficult to measure the value fo this conference. I wish Korea also can host such conferences led by senior cabinet members of the public offices, but considering the political division in Korea and growing geopolitical tension around Korean peninsula, I doubt there ever will be.
What actually surprised me was that another Italian high office’s former cabinet member also attened the conference and shared what she had to go through for pension reform. As Elsa Fornero mentioned, pension reform is not a technical problem, but a political problem. At the end of the day, it is just to choose how to persuade the groups that had to compromise with the reform and how to persuade general public to follow the changes for the better. In almost all cases, pension reforming governents failed to be re-elected. The only exception in my memory is Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro.
Will there ever be a conference in Korea that is hosted by a former Minstry of Economy and Finance, while a former Ministry of Labor throws questions to all presentations for a 2-full-day conference? Not just random questions, but a highly sensible, political, practical, yet still very much motivated by hard economic theory?
Italy certainly is not the most powerful country in the world. I could feel a lot of 2nd-tier country like infrastructure issues during the short-term visit, but the two high cabinet members’ quality indeed told me that why Italy is still G7.
National leaders, leader candidates, and supporting high cabinet member groups are not grown automatically. Given that both Mr. Franco and Ms. Fornero are 1940s and 1950s born politicians and economists, who served the country in early 2020s, it takes at least half a century for such leaders to grow. And assuming that they must have had role models in their childhood, we probably need a century to build a social infrastrcture to foster such future leaders. Looking back to Korea again, unfortunately I cannot see that we are soon going to have such a leader and leadership cabinet candidates, who can continue their contribution to the country through academic settings and extended business network like the conference.