2005-2162

Diplomacy
People attending the third
OECD World Forum held in
Busan Oct. 27 to 30 listen to
speakers on how to develop
an alternative metric to gross
domestic product. A total of
2,024 people — government
administrators, politicians,
academics and civic group
members from 78 countries
— participated in the event,
according to Statistics Korea,
a cosponsor of the event.
New Metric to Replace GDP
Joseph Stiglitz, center, the Nobel laureate in economics who heads the Stiglitz Commission,
addresses the third Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development World Forum
held in Busan Oct. 27-30.
ing data.”
The indicators hotly debated at the
event, according to Statistics Korea,
included disparity in the distribution of
wealth, depletion of natural resources,
the underground economy and the
overall quality of goods and services.
Participating researchers also offered
studies on how to include security, leisure
time and public services in social
metrics. More subjective evaluations
like balance of time, health and education
were also called for.
Stiglitz stressed the urgency of getting
beyond GDP, saying the traditional
accounting has blinded the world to the
full brunt of the global financial crisis.
He argued that the U.S. consumption
boom between 2003 and 2007 was based
on a GDP increase built in part on
debt.
“In an increasingly performanceoriented
society, metrics matters —
what we measure affects what we do,”
said Stiglitz in a speech at the Busan
event. “If we have the wrong metrics, we
will strive for the wrong things. In a
quest for an increase in GDP, we may
end up with a society in which citizens
are worse off.”
OECD Secretary-General Angel
Gurria also assessed the Busan event as
“important step forward in an ambitious
agenda to provide guidance on
better measures and methodologies for
lasting progress,” according to the
OECD Web site.
Gurria also drew attention to a further
debate on how to measure “green
growth,” a sector in which Korea has
taken a leading role with its five-year,
107 trillion won ($93 billion) green
growth initiative.
The Korean government said it will
try to live up to expectations by collaborating
with other countries in coming
up with green growth statistics. In a
speech during the event, President Lee
Myung-bak promised the government
will develop statistics regarding global
warming, greenhouse gas emissions
and quality of life.
“Many local research institutes have
already been doing research to develop
alternatives to GDP for many years,”
said Kim at Statistics Korea. “We hope
the hosting of the Busan event will provide
momentum for such research to be
accelerated and supported.”
By Moon Gwang-lip
December 2009 korea 29