Basic Income Expo Kicks Off...Lee Jae-myung: "Most Powerful Economic Policy to Prepare for Fourth Industrial Revolution Era"

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Park No-hoon] Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung said, "Basic income is the only and most powerful economic policy to prepare for the fourth industrial revolution era, and South Korea possesses the optimal conditions to lead in basic income."

At the opening ceremony of the 2021 Korea Basic Income Expo held on the 28th, Governor Lee stated, "The extreme situation humanity faces due to COVID-19 paradoxically becomes an opportunity that strengthens conviction in basic income."

The governor said, "Last year, basic income was implemented in South Korea under the name of emergency relief payments, albeit temporarily, and Gyeonggi Province carried out disaster basic income by providing 100,000 won per capita for three months in the form of time-limited local currency to all residents. As a result, store sales at small and medium-sized businesses with annual sales of less than 1 billion won and traditional market stores increased by as much as 150 percent, averaging 39.7 percent, proving that local currency-based basic income contributes greatly to economic activation."

He continued, "While the world continues to experience low economic growth due to insufficient demand, basic income secures economic recovery and sustained growth through expanded demand via income support. I am confident that basic income, particularly the local currency-based basic income being implemented in South Korea, is the only and most powerful economic policy to prepare for the fourth industrial revolution era."

Regarding concerns that no country has properly implemented this and worries about funding, the governor countered, "Rather, South Korea possesses the optimal conditions to lead in basic income. If we simply align social welfare spending with OECD average levels, we can secure additional available budgets close to nearly twice the current amount, and we can sufficiently allocate a portion of this to basic income policy."

He added, "Rather than giving up due to lack of capacity, we can expand implementation gradually within feasible ranges while gaining public consent. We can easily secure funding through carbon taxes to address climate crisis, robot taxes, data taxes, and land taxes that partially recoup unearned profits from real estate."

The governor said, "Like Gyeonggi Province's local currency-based youth basic income, basic income has already entered our society as a concrete policy. What is needed to prepare for the post-COVID era and fourth industrial revolution era is not inertia, fear, or hesitation, but imagination to prepare for a new era and the courage to open a new path."

Under the slogan "Making people truly human," the opening ceremony of the 2021 Korea Basic Income Expo, held at Kintex in Goyang from the 28th through the 30th, was livestreamed through the official website (basicincomefair.gg.go.kr) and YouTube channel.

At the opening ceremony, approximately 1,000 online visitors who had pre-registered through the website participated in non-face-to-face video format.

At the venue, a minimal number of attendees participated, including Jang Hyun-guk, Speaker of the Gyeonggi Provincial Assembly, and Jung Sung-ho, Chair of the National Assembly's Budget and Accounts Committee and advisory chair of the Basic Income Expo Organizing Committee, along with National Assembly members Seo Byung-hun, Kim Byung-wook, Yong Hye-in, Hong Ki-won, Lee Kyu-min, Kim Seung-won, and Hong Jung-min.

Following Governor Lee's opening remarks, Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee, 2019 Nobel laureate in economics and professor at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), delivered a keynote speech on the topic "Expansion of Basic Income in the Age of Coronavirus Pandemic."

Professor Banerjee conveyed the message that basic income experiments conducted in Kenya and elsewhere found no evidence that people become lazy from unconditional cash transfers or that it negatively impacts labor supply, confirming the possibility of universal expansion of basic income.

At the opening ceremony, video messages of support for expanding basic income from international figures were also introduced, including Kanni Wgnaraja, Regional Director of the UN Development Programme Asia-Pacific Office, Julie Dzerowicz, Canadian Federal Member of Parliament, and Gregory Nasif, Spokesperson of U.S. non-profit organization Humanity Forward.

Following the opening ceremony, from the afternoon of the 28th through the 29th, an "International Conference" will continue with the main theme "From Corona Catastrophe to a New Great Transformation, Basic Income!"

Sixty-eight basic income activists and experts, including Sarat Davala, Chair of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN), and Joseph Stiglitz, professor at Columbia University and 2001 Nobel laureate in economics, will participate as speakers and engage in heated policy discussions on basic income and local currency policies. The "International Conference" can be viewed in real-time online through the official website.