Economic-related Laws Need Reconsideration

Chairmen from four business organizations, including the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), decided to convene an emergency meeting on November 23. In this meeting, they will express serious concerns over the current economic situation of Korea and announce their opinions regarding pending economic matters.

Korean business organizations such as the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), the Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Korea International Trade Association (KITA), and the Korea Employers Federation (KEF), announced on November 22 that they would hold an emergency meeting of chairmen and full-time vice chairmen at the Shilla hotel Tuesday morning. The discussions are known to mainly focus on the revised bill for the fair trade law that the ruling Uri party passed in a National Policy Committee meeting held with the absence of GNP members, the private complex city development special law (also called the business city law) that is now presented in the National Assembly, and a bill regarding irregular workers that was passed at the cabinet meeting early this month.

After the meeting, chairmen of the four groups will announce a statement pointing out adverse effects that the revised fair trade law--based on reducing the voting rights of affiliates--would bring, maintaining the current total amount of investment money and the right to ask for information on financial transactions (also called the right of tracking accounts). By doing this, they plan to call for a reconsideration of putting the bills in effect.

In addition, they agreed that the Uri party’s law regarding business city that regulates the ratio of buying negotiations to over 50 percent is not enough to attract sufficient investment from companies. Therefore, they also plan to call on the government to accept their opinions more actively.

Joong-Hyun Park sanjuck@donga.com