(EDITORIAL from the JoongAng Daily on Jan. 18)

A new economic ecosystem

President Lee Myung-bak held a meeting last Friday with financial magnates.

According to the Federation of Korean Industries, the largest business lobby
group in Korea, the nation???s top 30 conglomerates plan to invest about 87
trillion won ($77 billion) in total this year, up 16.3 percent from last year???s
74.8 trillion won, and expand recruitment by 8.7 percent compared to the previous
year by hiring more than 79,000 employees. Samsung Group is expected to make the
second largest investment in its history. LG Group President Koo Bon-moo said,
???We will further expand investment earlier than scheduled.??? In this period of
employment problems, this is welcome news. Lee, who puts the highest priority on
job creation, has expressed his gratitude to the business leaders for announcing
such radical investment plans.
The fact that the president urged businesses to consider investing more from the
outset of the new year sets a good example. Corporate investment is a matter that
must be judged on its own merits, rather than through government pressure.
However, our society has been seeing no employment growth since the outbreak of
the financial crisis. A considerable amount of corporate investment moved
overseas. Recently, there is an indication that this atmosphere is changing.
Large conglomerates who survived the global financial crisis are announcing plans
to engage in aggressive management in a bid to take positions of leadership as
global providers. Labor-management relations dragging down the Korean economy are
undergoing rapid change. Strikes are disappearing and law and order are coming
into force. A new economic ecosystem is being created to ensure that the
government, management and labor will join hands to make another quantum leap.
It has been repeatedly emphasized that the national economy can???t be expected
to move forward without an expansion of investment. Investment, which is overly
weighted toward foreign countries, should make a U-turn back to Korea. Ambitious
new year???s blueprints for investment expansion have gone up in smoke over and
over again. This should stop this year.
The federation has launched a committee for the creation of three million jobs
nationwide in the coming eight years. The government and politicians need to take
measures to provide a healthy investment atmosphere. Outdated institutions
hampering job creation and labor market flexibility should be overhauled across
the board. A variety of labor patterns should be allowed to cope with changes at
work and to meet global standards, and barriers to entry into the service
industry should be drastically lowered. This is a shortcut to creating jobs for
women and young people.
(END)