South Korea's Ministry of Economy and Finance readies won internationalization roadmap for release in July

South Korea's Ministry of Economy and Finance convened a meeting of the won internationalization task force to review the draft roadmap prepared since the task force was launched in February and said the plan will be finalized and announced later in July after final coordination among participating agencies. The roadmap is being developed around the goal of moving the won from a restricted currency to a freely convertible currency. Officials reviewed the overall roadmap developed through interagency consultations and discussed additional refinements. The meeting also examined how to respond if the internationalization push increases risks such as greater foreign exchange market volatility. Participating bodies included the Financial Services Commission, the Bank of Korea, the Financial Supervisory Service and the Korea Securities Depository. Following publication of the roadmap, the authorities plan to quickly flesh out detailed implementation measures for each workstream. They also agreed to keep using the task force as the main coordination channel to communicate with the market, monitor progress and cooperate on risk management.