By Michael Ha
Staff Reporter
President Lee Myung-bak said that his administration will take steps to help small and mid-sized businesses and the agricultural sector in rural communities.
``A lot of critics are saying my administration is implementing economic policies geared toward only helping conglomerates. But in fact, I assure you that is not true," he said during his town hall meeting Tuesday night.
In the nationally televised event from KBS Hall, Lee said: ``The only policy that would help big businesses is cutting back on excessive regulations so that big companies can compete fairly with overseas competitors. That's one policy that will help big businesses.
``Conglomerates already have the capital and the business know-how to go out and compete in foreign markets. One thing the government can and should do for these major conglomerates is to eliminate unnecessary red tape,'' Lee said. ``We should realize that conglomerates also bring a lot of benefits to the country and help advance our economy.''
The President said that cutting back on regulations also benefits smaller businesses as well. ``Fewer regulations mean conglomerates can more easily invest domestically as well. That invigorates the domestic economy and lifts up small businesses.''
Lee acknowledged that the vast majority of those employed in the domestic economy are not working for conglomerates but for small- and medium-sized businesses.
``I know that within the past three years, some 100,000 family-owned restaurants have gone bankrupt. This shows that we must work harder toward helping small businesses in this country. Even if those 100,000 family restaurants employed just one worker each, that means 100,000 people lost their livelihood because of those bankruptcies. It's vital that we take more steps to help small businesses," he said.
Lee noted that his administration has taken a step to do just that: help small, family-owned businesses. ``This year, my administration offered tax cuts to small businesses. But tax cuts for larger companies would not go into effect until later."
The President said the government is also putting more money away to fund research-and-development efforts aimed at helping small- and medium-sized companies.
Another question from the audience addressed the issue of the rural communities. A questioner, who described herself as a working woman and a farmer's daughter in her 50s, said living in the rural community is hard, and is getting more difficult.
``Prices for fertilizers have been going up and selling crops can barely make ends meet," she said.
The President noted that Korea's farming community is more important than indicated by its actual share of the overall economy. Currently, the agricultural businesses make up only 3 percent of the nation's GDP.
``But farming communities are the roots of our nation. We can't become an advanced nation if we fail at helping our farming communities," he said. Lee said that to this end, his administration is working to add government staff to help farming communities create value-added products, not just sell crops.