Pay women more to reverse birthrate decline, World Bank urges

Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok, right, shakes hands with President of the World Bank Ajay Banga ahead of their meeting in Seoul on Jan. 25. [YONHAP]

Populations need to grow in Korea to ensure a sustainable future, and fair compensation to women is one of the solutions, the chief of the World Bank said Thursday, amid the country’s falling fertility rate.

World Bank President Ajay Banga made the remarks during a meeting with reporters in Seoul, as he was in Seoul as part of his visits to the organization's member countries following his inauguration last June.

"We need growing populations, as you know well in Korea, to be able to keep and sustain the future," Banga said, citing the gender disparity in income as one of the biggest challenges for the world today.

"If you don't ensure that women are compensated adequately for the burden they bear for enabling their population to grow, it leads to complexity," he added.

He said appropriate opportunities need to be created for women as they face income disparities with men, which only “multiplies over the years.” That disparity grows when a woman takes time off for maternity leave.

The chief said rising expenses for child rearing and schooling tend to "reduce their desire to have children."

Banga added that those issues are not confined to Korea and that he was not an expert on the matter.

Korea has seen a constant fall in its already-low birthrate, as well as rapid aging, as many young people opt to postpone or give up on getting married or having babies in line with changing social norms and lifestyles, as well as in the face of high home prices.

Speaking of the economy, Banga said Korea is "a very strong economy" and its companies have "deep expertise" across a whole range of industries from chips to automobiles.

Korean companies can make significant contributions to developing nations based on their "great balance sheets, human capital and technology," Banga said, citing the health care and renewable energy fields as promising sectors, among other things.

Earlier in the day, Banga met with Korea's Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok and discussed ways to boost cooperation between Korea and the international entity on digital technology, global development aid via Korea's official development assistance (ODA) programs and various other economic issues, according to officials of Seoul's finance ministry.

Seoul's presidential office has said the World Bank head praised Korea's ODA policy as being "excellent," and voiced expectations for Korea setting global digital standards and acting as a bridge between the respective digital standards of each country during a meeting with President Yoon Suk Yeol.

BY JIN MIN-JI, YONHAP [jin.minji@joongang.co.kr]