FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C)
March 21, 2008
Korea: Inaugural Citi-KAIST Excellent Financial Paper Contest a Big Success
Seoul – The inaugural Citi-KAIST Excellent Financial Paper Contest was a major success and concluded with a scholarship award presentation ceremony held at the KAIST Graduate School of Finance in Dongdaemoon-gu, Seoul on March 18.
Sponsored by the Citi Foundation and run by the KAIST Graduate School of Finance, the program aims to foster finance sector talent through training, fun activities and a scholarship program. In this contest, students from 150 universities nationwide were invited to write an essay about economic and business trends. This year's entries included policy recommendations as well as in-depth research papers.
Of the 140 papers submitted, 100 (40 from graduate students and 60 from undergraduate students) were selected as scholarship winners.
Jin-Hei Park, Senior Executive Vice President, Citibank Korea, said, "The high quality of the papers shows that there are many future finance leaders and we hope many of you will play a part in the future in the development of the banking and financial services industry."
Kooyul Jung, Dean, KAIST Graduate School of Finance, said, "In terms of judging we looked at topicality, creativity, and the strength and structure of the argument."
He added, "We were pleased at the variety of the essays and the students seem to have a great interest in many aspects of the financial world."
The award ceremony was followed by a special lecture by Kyung-Soo Kim, President, Institute for Monetary & Economic Research, Bank of Korea. In addition, a mentoring program focused on financial sector career development with 18 specialists from Citibank Korea, KAIST and the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).
Soo-Whan Kim, an Economics major, Seoul National University, who attended the award ceremony said, "It's an honor to receive such a great award and we especially enjoyed the mentoring program with the financial specialists."
Following this ceremony, KAIST will select the six best papers to find grand prize and runner up prizes for graduate and undergraduate student winners. They will be invited to attend a best paper ceremony in June that will involve more mentoring and development programs.
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