Six delegates from the Korean central bank visited the Bundesbank’s University of Applied Sciences in Hachenburg at the beginning of October. Discussions focussed on current issues such as digitalisation and demographic change and the exchange certainly revealed  some common ground on both sides. For example, both central banks are considering ways of pooling the large volume of economic data to enable more efficient evaluation for analytical purposes, such as in economic forecasts. Future demographic developments also pose a challenge to both countries, even though the potential number of employees in Korea is declining with a time lag. The Asian country thus already has the opportunity to take active countermeasures at an early stage. “In this way we can obtain an affordable and highly efficient social system”, explained Jieun Lee in her presentation on demographic change in Korea.

The seed for the meeting in the Westerwald was sown when university lecturers Andreas Igl and Oliver Kruse took part in a bilateral exchange between the Korean central bank and the Bundesbank in Seoul at the end of last year. During the exchange, a spontaneous invitation was made for the Korean delegation to visit Hachenburg in order to hold discussions with lecturers from the “Central Banking” degree programme and to become familiar with campus activities.

Interesting insights for both parties

During a tour of the castle, our guests also had an opportunity to learn about the dual Central Banking degree programme and academic life on the university campus. The Korean central bank does not run an equivalent study programme. The numerous questions regarding the academic and research programmes were thus focussed on areas relating to central banking, especially monetary policy, financial stability, banking supervision and payments. Alongside the detailed discussions on content, there was also enough time for personal dialogues between the Korean visitors and the university lecturers, which in addition provided the teaching staff in Hachenburg with an interesting insight into the Bank of Korea. Taking stock after the meeting, Oliver Kruse, deputy rector of the Deutsche Bundesbank University of Applied Sciences, noted “being a university also means bringing together different views and cultures in order to encourage an exchange of knowledge”.