(LEAD) Lee calls for firms to expand investment

(ATTN: UPDATES throughout with Cheong Wa Dae briefing, other details)
By Lee Chi-dong
SEOUL, Jan. 7 (Yonhap) -- President Lee Myung-bak said Thursday that it is time
for the government to reduce its role in national efforts to stimulate the
economy and urged private companies to do more to ensure a full-scale recovery by
increasing their investment.

He also said South Korea will have to maintain an "emergency economy mode" at
least until the first half of this year, while simultaneously reviewing so-called
exit strategies after more than a year of expansionary fiscal policies.
"I think the South Korean economy will enter a genuine recovery phase only
through the robust cycle of making investments, creating jobs, and increasing
demand," Lee said at the opening of a town hall meeting held to mark the first
anniversary of the launch of the "emergency economic meeting."
"Private firms' full-scale investments have yet to begin," he added.
In his New Year address in 2009, the president, formerly a top corporate
executive, said he would put his economic policy on an emergency footing and
launched the high-profile meeting a few days later to craft ways to weather the
then-burgeoning global crisis that stemmed from the collapse of U.S. firm Lehman
Brothers.
The weekly meeting often convenes at an underground bunker at the presidential
office in a show of Lee's attitude towards the economic woes.
The president and his senior economic policymakers produced a host of decisive
measures on supplementary budgets and the prevention of job cuts that are
credited with helping South Korea begin its economic recovery faster than many
other major economies, according to Lee's office Cheong Wa Dae.
The president said, however, that the country should not grow complacent in spite
of the improving signals, as various uncertainties still lurk in the global
economy making accurate forecasts improbable.
The mood at the town hall meeting, attended by more than 80 officials, local and
foreign business leaders, party officials, and citizens, was punctuated by such
guarded optimism.
"I think we have to maintain the emergency economic posture at least until the
first half of this year," Lee said. "The world will also have to review an exit
strategy at the G-20 economic summit to be held in Canada (in June)."
Countries should cooperate on an exit strategy just as they did for discussions
on ways to ride out the crisis, Lee said, adding that South Korea plans to lead
such efforts as co-chair of the G-20 summit this year.
Kim Eun-hye, spokeswoman at Cheong Wa Dae, said later at a press briefing that
the president will continue to hold the emergency economic meeting for about six
more months.
Kim stressed that Lee's regular attendance at the weekly meeting for over a year
was "almost unprecedented" among heads of state.
Meanwhile, the cable news network CNN plans to air a special program on South
Korea's efforts to overcome the economic crisis over the past year later
Wednesday, according to the spokeswoman.
"Vice Finance Minister Hur Kyung-wook is visiting Hong Kong now for talks with
Korean businesses there. He is likely to have an interview at the CNN office
there later today," she said.
lcd@yna.co.kr
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