President Lee Myung-bak said Thursday big and small businesses should care more about growing together if South Korean society is to move further forward following the conglomerate-centered industrialization.
Lee also said his campaign for shared growth or "ecosystemic development" is in line with the political buzzword of "economic democratization" that major presidential candidates and political parties have been calling for in unison ahead of December's election.
"Our society has hectically developed so far but reached a point of limit where we can't move forward any more unless we seek development through cooperation with each other," Lee said during a ceremony marking the second anniversary of the government's campaign for shared growth.
Shared growth has been one of Lee's key objectives. It calls for the rich, such as large conglomerates, to do more to help those less well-off so as to narrow economic inequalities amid perceptions that big firms prey on smaller ones and dominate the fruits of economic growth.
Lee believes that social inequalities have worsened so much in market-based economies that it could destabilize societies unless the gaps are narrowed. Lee has called for a new type of market economy that puts a greater emphasis on sharing the benefits of growth with the less privileged.
"Our political circles are talking about various things in this regard, including economic democratization, and I believe all these have in them the concept of shared growth and ecosystemic development," Lee said.
Economic democracy has been one of the most sought-after policies among political parties in recent months, regardless of whether they are conservatives or liberal, as they try to tap into negative public perceptions about conglomerates ahead of the presidential vote.
Lee stressed that shared growth cannot be realized with law alone, saying coercive means is supposed to fail. Corporate ethics and business culture should be changed in a way that embraces shared growth if shared growth is to succeed, he said. (Yonhap)