Lee calls for firms to expand investment

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 helping to stimulate the economy,
calling on private companies to do more to ensure a full-scale recovery by
increasing their investment.
He added, however, that 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 a year of expansionary fiscal policies.
"I think the South Korean economy will enter a genuine recovery phase only after
the cycle of making investments, creating jobs, and increasing demand has been
completed," 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,
launching the high-profile meeting to craft ways to weather the then-burgeoning
global crisis that stemmed from the collapse of U.S. firm Lehman Brothers.
The weekly meeting convenes at an underground bunker at the presidential office,
except for those times that Lee is out of the country.
The president and his senior economic policymakers produced a host of decisive
measures on supplementary budgets and 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 70 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 South Korea plans to lead such
efforts as co-chair of the G-20 summit this year.
lcd@yna.co.kr
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