OECD Network on Fiscal Relations across Levels of Government Dr. Junghun Kim
1. What is the mission and mandate of your Committee? The OECD Network on Fiscal Relations across Levels of Government (OECD "Fiscal Network") provides policy analysis and statistical underpinnings on the relationship between national and subnational governments, and its impact on efficiency, equity and macroeconomic stability. 2. You have been designated Committee Chair. What is your background and what has convinced you to take up this post? How do you consider your background and experience contribute to such a role and function? I am currently President and CEO of Fiscal Policy Institute (FPI) in Seoul, Korea. Previously I was Vice President of Korea Institute of Public Finance (KIPF), a government research institute specializing on fiscal and tax policy. Throughout my twenty-seven year career, I have played a key role in many government committees such as Conditional Grants Evaluation Board of Ministry of Strategy and Finance, Presidential Special Committee on Fiscal Reform, and Medium Term Fiscal Framework Support Committee. I have also consulted for international organizations such as the OECD, the World Bank, and the ADB on various issues of fiscal policy, tax policy and intergovernmental fiscal relations. In the early 2000s, experts from the OECD, the World Bank, and the IMF gathered together in Paris to initiate an OECD committee on intergovernmental fiscal relations, and I was one of the members in the kick-off steering group. By that time, my academic background and the mission of the KIPF had led me deeply involved in various issues of fiscal decentralisation in Korea and the OECD Network on Fiscal Relations provided me with great opportunity to get to know the statistical and institutional context of fiscal decentralisation in many OECD countries. So I was fully committed to the activities of the Fiscal Network. I guess that is why I was elected as Chair of the OECD Network on Fiscal Relations in 2011. 3. What is your main priority as Chair? The mandate of the OECD Network on Fiscal Relations is to provide in-depth policy analysis and high-quality statistical information on the intergovernmental fiscal relations in order to enhance efficiency, equity and macroeconomic stability. So my main priority is to contribute to developing the committee’s agenda that fits with this mission and is consequential and relevant for member countries. A particularly important aspect of intergovernmental fiscal relations is the fact it has to deal with diverse policy issues such as tax policy, expenditure policy, education policy, labour market policy, and regional development policy. Collaboration across different committees is strongly encouraged inside the OECD, but dealing with the interactions of various policy issues is not an option but a requirement for the success of the OECD Network on Fiscal Relations. So I try my best to get the benefit of collaboration across different OECD committees as well as developing committee agendas that fit with such purpose.
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