Business leaders in Korea need to step up investment and hiring to help boost the domestic economy, the top economic policymaker said Monday, as the country struggles with prolonged market uncertainty from eurozone debt problems and possible global slowdowns.

“As a result of slower-than-expected global economic recovery from the slump and its impact on our economic situation, exports and domestic demand, the two growth engines (for Korea), are not fully cranking up,” Finance Minister Bahk Jae-wan told a meeting with business leaders in central Seoul.

“The government will keep an eye on external economic variables while at the same time running a system to effectively cope with them,” he said. “We ask businesses, for their part, to actively join the efforts to get the economy out of crisis and prepare for the future by expanding facility investment and hiring.”

The meeting, which was arranged by the Federation of Korean Industries, the country’s largest business lobby group, comes amid growing demand for large conglomerates to play a bigger role in boosting the domestic economy in fairer and more balanced ways.

The demand for so-called “economic democratization” mostly targets family-controlled businesses, known as “chaebol,” which wield significant clout often at the expense of small- and medium-sized companies.

Chaebol have been credited with boosting South Korea’s export-driven economy in recent decades but they also have been a target of public criticism over their perceived abuse of economic power.

Some argue that in recent years the business community has not done enough to beef up investment and hiring despite government efforts to ease regulations and create a business-friendly environment.

Bahk asked the attendees to think about what role is required of companies and urged them to cooperate in creating a society where companies and business leaders can be respected.

Business leaders who attended the meeting called for the government to make more efforts to reduce regulations and resolve challenges confronting future overall business activities.

In response, Bahk promised to keep trying to resolve difficulties for the corporate sector, assuring the business community of the government’s commitment to create a business-friendly environment for the remainder of its term, which ends early next year. 

(Yonhap News)