「2026 International Conference on Economic Education:
Reconstructing Economic Education in the AGI Era」 Held

• The Ministry of Finance and Economy and KDI successfully held the “2026 International Conference on Economic Education” over two days, from July 22 to 23, at the Ambassador Seoul Pullman Hotel. The conference was organized to explore new directions and standards for economic education amid the rapid advancement of AI technology. Bringing together the aspirations of economic education in major countries alongside a wide range of economic and financial education cases from both inside and outside Korean schools, the conference offered around 300 participants a meaningful forum for exchange and practical insight. 
  
  [Day 1] Global Trends and the Current State of Economic Education in Korea
  
  [Opening Ceremony]

  

  The event opened with opening remarks from Second Vice Minister Heo Jang of the Ministry of Finance and Economy, welcoming remarks from KDI President Se-Jik Kim, and congratulatory remarks from Chairman Bahk Jae-wan of the Korea Council for Economic Education (KCEE).
  
  Second Vice Minister Heo Jang of the Ministry of Finance and Economy stressed that economic education should move toward building students’ and citizens’ ability to ask questions for themselves and design their own lives. KDI President Se-Jik Kim likewise expressed his commitment to researching economic education policy ideas suited to a changing era and to supporting future generations in growing into creative talent. Chairman Bahk Jae-wan of the Korea Council for Economic Education (KCEE) emphasized that while AI can provide information, reflection and judgment remain the province of humans, and called for working together to pioneer new approaches to economic education.

  
  [Keynote Speech]

  

  Stéphan Vincent-Lancrin, Deputy Head of the OECD Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI), delivered an in-depth keynote on “Education in the Age of Generative AI: Evidence and Implications for Economic Education.” He noted that while generative AI can improve students’ problem-solving processes and creative writing in the short term, it also has clear limitations — reducing students’ recall of their own writing and increasing similarity across students’ output, which can erode collective originality. He went on to introduce research on “Tutor CoPilot,” emphasizing that AI support can help relatively inexperienced teachers and tutors give students effective real-time feedback and encourage active learning. As a practical approach for economic education in particular, he drew considerable attention with a proposal to use GenAI to generate a “simulated dataset” on international student mobility, creating a concrete lesson-design scenario in which students learn about the roles of demand, supply, and price.

  
  [Session 1]

  
  

  This session offered an in-depth look at the state of economic education and the challenges facing each country in step with AGI trends. Representing their respective countries were Kim Holder, former Managing Director of the Center for Economic Education (CEE) at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, from the United States; Gabriela Gutiérrez Gómez, Head of Education at Aflatoun International, from the Netherlands; Mohamad Fazli Sabri, Dean of the Faculty of Human Ecology at Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), from Malaysia; and Professor Hyung-jun Park of Seoul National University, from Korea. Through a wide range of case studies, the speakers gave attendees in-depth insight into global trends in economic education.
  
  [Day 2] New Standards and Practical Cases in Economic Education

  
  [Session 2]

  

  Following a talk on “The Age of Investment and Its Implications for Economic and Financial Education” by Kun-young Oh, Head of Shinhan Premier Pathfinder, participants took part in a group activity built around the questions of “what to unlearn, what to relearn, and how to view humanity,” sharing their own views and experiences.

  
  [Session 3]

  

  In the afternoon, the session split into two tracks to present the latest economic education cases being applied in schools and the private sector. In Track 1, Baek Su-hyeon, a teacher at Sinam Middle School in Seoul, and Kang Da-sol, a teacher at Cheongju Daeseong High School, shared hands-on economics lesson cases from middle and high school classrooms and outlined practical directions for using AI in school-based economic education. In Track 2, Min-hee Lee, CEO of Lemontree Inc., and Do-hyeong Kim, CEO of Tori Edufin Inc., closed out Session 3 by sharing case studies and analysis of youth financial education using the allowance-management app “firfin” and the simulated stock-investment app “Marulab.”

  
  [Special Lecture and Closing Ceremony]

  The two-day conference concluded with a special lecture, “Educational Innovation and Active Learning in the AI Era,” by President Jaeho Yeom of Taejae University. Throughout the event, attendees also enjoyed a variety of hands-on booths where they could experience teaching materials from the Ministry of Finance and Economy’s Economic Learning e+ platform, KDI, the Korea Council for Economic Education (KCEE), and regional economic education centers, as well as content from the OECD and the Council for Economic Education (CEE) and AI education content from edtech companies — drawing an enthusiastic response from participants.
   

  ▶  Access the “2026 International Conference on Economic Education” Program [Click]