Nam Hyun-woo has worked as a staff writer at The Korea Times since 2013, mostly covering business and politics. He currently belongs to the Business Desk where he covers topics such as emerging tech, AI, ICT and Korea's chaebol community. Prior to joining the team, he was the paper's correspondent for the presidential office of Korea during the Yoon Suk Yeol and Moon Jae-in administrations.
Companies give National Assembly failing grade
Lawmakers pass a bill at the National Assembly on Yeouido, Seoul, on Nov. 19. Korea Times photo by Oh Dae-keun
By Nam Hyun-woo
By Nam Hyun-woo
KCCI Chairman Park Yong-maan
Eight out of 10 firms in Korea gave a failing grade to the National Assembly when assessing its policymaking efforts, a survey by the Korea Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI) showed Sunday.
According to the poll of 300 domestic companies, the firms gave an average 1.66 points on a scale of zero to four when rating the economic legislation of the current 20th National Assembly.
Of the respondents, 16 percent gave zero points, while 25.7 percent gave 1 point. Including the 36 percent of firms which gave 2 points, 77.7 percent of the surveyed firms gave scores between zero and two.
On the same scale, the National Assembly scored 1.95 points in its effort to monitor the government and 1.56 points in effort to address social conflicts.
As to the reason for their harsh grades, 40.3 percent of firms said the Assembly was swayed by multiple stakeholders and 32.7 percent said it neglected economic policymaking after becoming obsessed with political conflicts.
“The National Assembly continued to push back many important bills on the opposition from stakeholders, while putting urgent economic issues on the back burner as they focused on political conflicts” the KCCI said in a statement.
“Several bills were re-tabled after being scrapped in the previous Assembly due to the expiration of the term, but they again failed to pass the 20th Assembly, and such a situation is expected to continue repeatedly.”
The KCCI cited bills on improving the country's 52-hour workweek, easing cloud computing and fintech regulations were new bills at the 20th National Assembly, but they are expected to be scrapped and re-tabled at the next Assembly.
In the survey, 77.3 percent of firms said new laws on easing regulations are in “urgent need,” and 73.4 percent said legislations on labor and employment issues are also urgently needed.
“The longer it takes for a bill to pass the Assembly, the greater the uncertainties businesses face, and this provides serious setbacks for firms to come up with next year's plan,” a KCCI official said. “Businesses hope that the lawmakers of the 20th National Assembly prioritize economic issues for the remainder of their term.”