President Kim Changgil of the Korea Rural Economic Institute (KREI) took office as the 36th president of the Korea Agricultural Economics Association (KAEA) for 2018 at the KAEA winter conference and its regular general meeting on Dec. 14. His term of office is one year from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2018.
 

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Association. The KAEA is an influential academic society related to the agricultural economy that has greatly contributed to the agricultural sector through research, presentations, and information exchange on theories and policies regarding the agricultural and food economy, agricultural policy assessment, and policy suggestions.
 

President Kim graduated from Sungkyunkwan University and received his Ph.D. in agricultural economics from Oklahoma State University, US. He has served as the chair of the OECD Joint Working Party on Agriculture and the Environment; an expert in climate change, food, and agriculture at the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; an operating committee member of the Global Club and so on.
 

In his inaugural address, KAEA President Kim said, “Due to the expansion of the fourth industrial revolution, the new normal era with uncertainty, deteriorating terms of trade owing to the progress of market opening, and the intensification of the decrease and aging of the rural population, it has been necessary to restructure Korean agriculture and rural areas.” He also talked about his goals: “The Association will present effective policy alternatives for the development of agriculture and rural communities as a diagnostician and coordinator, improve capacities and outcomes through domestic and international networking and the strengthening of cooperation, and make efforts for globalization.”