South Korea's Ministry of Economy and Finance held its first 2026 Special Performance Awards ceremony, selecting seven policy achievements and 24 staff members for awards totaling KRW 30 million. Winners were chosen from 22 submissions covering policy outcomes announced from the launch of the current administration through 31 March 2026, following two rounds of review by a committee that included 24 external private-sector members. The top “Citizen Impact Grand Prize” (KRW 10 million) went to the team credited with the government’s emergency economic response to the Middle East war, including round-the-clock monitoring of macroeconomic and inflation conditions, establishment of a dedicated price-response team, and an additional KRW 4 trillion expansion of policy finance for affected firms. Other awards recognised work to secure final confirmation of Korea’s inclusion terms in the World Government Bond Index (including a won overdraft facility and citing KRW 8.5 trillion in net foreign purchases of Korean Treasury bonds as of 21 April), resolve financial settlement obstacles for imports of Russian-origin oil products (including obtaining US Treasury confirmation of no sanctions risk and supporting the import of 27,000 tonnes of naphtha), rapidly advance the Korea–US Strategic Investment Special Act and related implementation foundations, expand support for Middle East-related supply chain disruption (including a KRW 1.5 trillion special support programme), pilot blockchain-based treasury subsidy disbursements using deposit tokens, and develop an AI chatbot to support interpretation of Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework implementation rules. The Ministry indicated it will run a second round of special performance awards for achievements from April through year-end.

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