The Swedish Prime Minister His Excellency Mr. Goran Persson held a special lecture on March 11 at Ewha. During his short visit to Korea from March 9 to 11 for a summit with president Roh Moo-hyun, he visited Ewha to deliver a lecture titled ?nsuring Economic Vitality in a Welfare State. Many students, professors, and officials, including ministers and ambassadors to Korea, came to Ewha to attend the special lecture. Prime minister Persson expres-sed great concerns about the issues of pension systems and gender equality and said that guaranteeing these social benefits is one of the ways to ?nsure vitality in a welfare country.
As the prime minister of Sweden, a country famous for its welfare system, Persson firstly spoke about three goals of a nation? policies: income distribution, reducing poverty, and gender equality. He said those goals of Sweden? policies aim to make everyone have the desire to work, which leads to growth of the economy. He added that improvement of the working environment can make retired people able to work, and if the retirement age can go up one year, the labor supply will increase.
He also connected the issue of aging problem and gender equality. Women nowadays have jobs and many of them do not want children. There are less children and more old people. Naturally, the burden of our descendants to support old people will increase. Persson said that because women have responsibilities to have both their jobs and their children, the country has to support and stand by women.
Many students and professors were impres-sed by the lecture, and how Sweden maintains its welfare system. Cho Min-kyung (International Studies, 2) said, ?t was interesting to learn the driving forces behind Sweden, a strong welfare state.
Prime Minister Persson said that Ewha is the largest women? university training women leaders, and will have a great role in the global era. He ended his lecture by restating that the country has to provide a childcare system for women to achieve success in both their professions and their families.
springi02@ewha.ac.kr
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