■ Following the outbreak of the foreign currency crisis in November 1997, the resolution of domestic debt has emerged as the primary task for restoring economic stability in Korea. A year of economic turmoil and efforts at reform have now passed and it seems to be a good time for a reflection; for this purpose, KIEP held an international seminar, focusing on the two most important and intertwined aspects of economic reform: financial sector reform and corporate restructuring.

■ The financial sector reform has been reviewed by Dr. Stijn Claessens of the World Bank, and corporate restructuring by Dr. Ira Lieberman, also from the World Bank. The papers provide updated information on the reform process, and identify the size of the debt and the size of funds to resolve it as the biggest and immediate problem to be taken care of.

■ Both argue that this should take priority to any long term measures, and that greater government role is paramount in setting the speed and providing a central guidepost through, for example, greater use of fiscal policy and setting up of funds or a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to purchase debt to turn it into equity.

Introduction/Mikyung Yun

Ⅰ. Financial Sector Reform
●Korea's Financial Sector Reforms/Stijn Claessens/ Swati Ghosh/ and David
Scott
●Comments/ Yoon Je Cho /Buhmsoo Choi/John Dodsworth/Richard Samuelson

Ⅱ. Corporate Restructuring
●Korea's Corporate Crisis:Its Origins and a Strategy for Financial Restructuring
/Ira W. Lieberman and William Mako
●Comments /Jaques Beyssade/Dong-Sung Cho /Il-Sup Kim /Bonchun Koo

Appendices
●Welcoming Remarks/Kyung-Tae Lee
●Key Note Address
Korea's Economic Reforms: Progress to Date andChallenges Ahead/Kiwhan Kim

●Program

●List of Participants

● Abstract/국문요약