President Lee Myung-bak called on big businesses Tuesday to work harder to dispel negative perceptions of conglomerates, expressing concern about "anti-business" sentiment spreading amid calls from political parties for "economic democratization."
Calls for lessening the influence of conglomerates have grown in South Korea, especially among politicians from both ruling and opposition parties ahead of December's presidential vote, as they try to tap into public perceptions that big businesses sweep the benefits of economic growth.
Conglomerates view such calls with concern they could be unfairly discriminated against.
That was a key topic during a lunch meeting Lee had with five major business lobbies, and Lee voiced concern about "excessive anti-business sentiment spreading unilaterally on the pretext of economic democratization," presidential spokesman Park Jeong-ha said.
"I have also been talking about ecosystemic development and shared growth. That is to call for a change in the culture of conglomerates, with conglomerates and small- and medium-sized businesses forging mutually supplementary relations," Lee was quoted as saying.
"SMEs can fare well when conglomerates fare well. This is an emotional issue. Businesses should think seriously about what they should do (to dispel such sentiment), and offer to do something first before demanding the political circles do something" in return, he said.
"Ecosystemic development" or shared growth has been a key policy objective for Lee. It calls for the rich, such as large conglomerates, to do more to help those less well-off and narrow economic inequalities amid perceptions that big firms dominate the fruits of economic growth. (Yonhap)