President Yoon Suk-yeol presented “digital transformation” as a solution to the global complex crisis in his keynote speech on Monday at the B20 Summit involving representatives of companies from 20 major countries held on the sidelines of the G20 Summit.

B20 Summit established in 2010 has served to channel the voice and aspirations of the global business community to G20 leaders. Yoon delivered a keynote speech on the theme of the role of companies in overcoming the global complex crisis, and global cooperation in the era of digital transformation.

“I believe that the core of private-sector supply-side innovation in the current global environment depends on digital transformation,” Yoon said at the B20 Summit Indonesia 2022 held at the Bali Nusa Dua Convention Center, Indonesia.

Yoon said production costs have risen and supply capabilities have been reduced due to “supply chain disruptions” and “various geopolitical conflicts” in the process of recovering the pandemic.

He noted solutions to the crisis should be found in terms of supply and the role of the government must also be changed.

“New businesses are constantly emerging as digital technologies combine with existing industries and data to reduce costs and create new value,” Yoon said, adding Korea puts a priority on “digital transformation” in the private-led growth.

“The digital ecosystem should be open to everyone, and anyone should be able to access and use digital data fairly,” he said.

President Yoon landed in Indonesia on early Monday to attend the G20 Summit after wrapping up his trip to Cambodia for the ASEAN Summit.

During the two-day trip to Indonesia, he is scheduled to meet with business leaders from Korea and Indonesia and state leaders from G20 nations.

The first day was mostly filled with economic meetings, such as the B20 keynote speech and the Korea-India business round table.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo was present at the business roundtable. The two leaders had a summit meeting at the Yongsan presidential office in July and agreed to strengthen economic and security cooperation between the two countries through a joint press release. Before the roundtable, they discussed various economic cooperation projects, such as investment, supply chain and defense cooperation between the two countries.

Choi Sang-mok, the senior presidential secretary for economic affairs said, "This roundtable is meaningful as it is the first economic cooperation move with ASEAN countries since President Yoon made an official proposal to upgrade ASEAN-Korea relations to a comprehensive strategic partnership in Phnom Penh, Cambodia."

On Tuesday, the second day of his trip to Indonesia, he will deliver a speech at the G20 summit on food, energy, security and health. Yoon will return home late in the day. He is scheduled to hold a Korea-Dutch summit on Thursday and a Korea-Spain summit the next day.

ASEAN Summit wrap-up

Before arriving in Bali, Yoon attended multiple summits in Cambodia with ASEAN nations, the US, Japan and China. On the last leg of his tips to Cambodia, Yoon held bilateral and multilateral talks with the US, Japan and China, vowing a more unified response to continued North Korean provocations and agreed to strengthen the trilateral cooperation to deter the threats.

They released a joint statement promising to strengthen deterrence against the North and share real-time information on its missiles among the three countries.

The statement also included their basic positions on Taiwan “remain unchanged” and reiterated the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait as an indispensable element of security and prosperity in the international community.

Attention is also being paid to whether Yoon would meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who recently won his third consecutive term, on the occasion of the G20 Summit, although the presidential office saw the possibility very low. US President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping were set to hold the first face-to-face summit in Bali, Indonesia, on Monday night.