La Chambre

Korea Forum 2019

On April 25th, FKCCI's Managing Director, Stella Yoon, participated in the 6th Korea Forum at the Shilla Hotel in Seoul. Under the theme "Third year of the Moon Jae-in administration and three hurdles lying ahead," the one-day forum attracted hundreds of dignitaries, including top government officials, leaders of political parties, ambassadors and senior embassy officials.

The forum, co-hosted by The Korea Times and its sister paper the Hankook Ilbo, was divided into two sessions. The first session focused on labor market issues and the second tackled government's regulation for Chaebols. 

During the first session, labor experts discussed major problems holding back the country's economic growth. Former Labor Minister, Kim Dae-hwan, pointed out the country's dual structure: the widening gap between large and small companies, and the gap between regular and irregular workers. 
Kim advised the government to secure labor flexibility and increase productivity through various types of employment, shortened working hours and the improvement of job training. 

Over the second session, Fair Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman, Kim Sang-jo, and his rival panelists highlighted Korea's policies on conglomerates and agreed that the government's regulation on large firms "should not be preventative."
Kim said the country has been making efforts to address such problems and draw out "economic democratization" for the past 30 years, but are yet to reach a point of success. Thus, he said the FTC and the laws should be focused on "ex-post disciplines" punishing companies for their misdeeds if and when they happen, not restricting them with regulations.