Moon stresses deregulation, investment
President Moon Jae-in, center, talks with SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won on the sidelines of his participation of the opening of SK hynix's M15-dubbed NAND flash-type memory chip fabrication facility in Cheongju, Gyeonggi Province, Thursday. / Yonhap
President attends opening ceremony for SK Hynix plant
By Kim Yoo-chul
CHEONGJU, North Jeolla Province — President Moon Jae-in said Thursday the government will put greater emphasis on creating more jobs by relaxing regulations and helping private companies explore business opportunities in areas that were previously untouched.
“We have to admit the government has yet to find proper answers to address structural economic problems mostly due to industrial automation and stagnant incomes for small business owners,” Moon said during a meeting with the Presidential Commission on Job Creation.
According to his observation, the country’s export growth is looking solid thanks to semiconductor companies’ significant contributions to the local economy.
“The semiconductor industry is the economy’s key growth engine. It posted record sales by exporting $61.2 billion in the first half alone. But the issue is that there are no viable contributors other than semiconductors for job creation,” Moon said.
Korea is home to the world’s top two semiconductor manufacturers, Samsung Electronics and SK hynix.
The presidential committee identified web-enabled appliances, future vehicles, semiconductors and displays, bio and health and energy as the country’s “future growth engines.”
“The government will invest 125 trillion won (some $110 billion) in 140 business projects, all of them relating to those designated industries to create up to 92,000 new jobs,” Moon said.
He reaffirmed the government will continue relaxing regulations to invite more investment from the private sector and unveiled programs to help the sector grow new businesses.
“Once the government receives requests from private companies to discard old-fashioned hurdles, then we will do it. I want government agencies to work together to remain very responsive in a timely manner,” he told participants.
It remains to be seen whether his remarks represent Seoul’s shift toward private sector initiatives as Moon once pledged to create hundreds of thousands of public-sector jobs to subsidize hiring at small busi ness and to provide direct assistance to jobseekers.
But there is no doubt the Moon administration is facing numerous challenges over the failure of his signature income-driven growth policies aimed at creating well-paid jobs and cooling down local property speculation.
Moon congratulated the opening of SK hynix’s new NAND flash memory chip facility here south of Seoul.
“I am impressed to see the developments of chip wafers during a guided tour of the new complex. If big companies share their valued patents with small companies, then big companies will cut their costs and small companies will find new business opportunities,” Moon said.
Attending the opening ceremony at the SK Group’s chip unit were SK Chairman Chey Tae-won, senior SK executives and high-profile officials of the regional government.