Business lobby groups call on Yoon for drastic regulatory reforms

President Yoon Suk-yeol speaks with chiefs of business lobby groups at his office in Seoul on March 21 while he was president-elect. Korea Times photo by Oh Dae-keun

By Baek Byung-yeul

The country's business lobby groups celebrated the inauguration of the Yoon Suk-yeol government and called for the new president to implement drastic regulatory reforms to revive the economy.

The Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), the Korea Enterprises Federation (KEF), the Korea International Trade Association (KITA) and the Korea Federation of SMEs (KBIZ) released statements on Monday, a day before President Yoon Suk-yeol's inauguration and welcomed his new administration.

They also said the new government needs to work on addressing continued uncertainties such as global supply chain disruptions in the short term and asked for quality-of-life improvements in the long run.

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"Since his candidacy, the president has been pro-business, emphasizing the logic of the market economy and referring to private-led economic growth. That's why companies have higher expectations for the new government than the previous one. Companies seem to expect him to create a good working environment," an official from a local conglomerate said on condition of anonymity.

The FKI said, "The Korean economy is facing a combination of internal and external crises due to global inflation as well as the worsening export environment caused by the spread of protectionism and falling potential growth."

Adding that "it is important to revive the economy through reigniting the private sector's growth vitality," the FKI went on to say, "We expect the government to come up with various investment support measures to help companies make more active investments."

The KCCI said, "We hope the new government will overcome short-term crisis factors such as inflation, exchange rate and supply chain disruptions while promoting national development and taking an economic leap forward in the medium to long term."

The chamber also asked the government "to work to solve various reform tasks such as regulations, labor, the public sector and education to restore the growth engines as these tasks are complex issues intertwined with specific factors such as population decline, risk of local extinction and polarization."

The lobby group pledged that it will also make more efforts to actively invest, create jobs and fulfill its social responsibility in order to develop the national economy and improve the quality of people's lives.

The KEF asked Yoon to show strong leadership given that the new government is starting out under difficult conditions, such as rapidly changing international circumstances and structural changes to the global economy.

The federation also stressed the need for drastic regulatory reforms. "Only when an environment that is good for business is established, then corporate investment will be revitalized and this will lead to job creation and economic growth. We will also overcome the economic crisis and take on our corporate social responsibility by investing more actively and creating high-quality jobs," it said.

KITA asked for policy help to create a favorable environment for trade, which accounts for the largest part of the country's economy, and KBIZ urged the Yoon administration to improve excessive regulations that make it difficult for small businesses to operate, such as the 52-hour workweek rule and the Serious Accidents Punishment Act.

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