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| President Moon Jae-in shakes hands with Samsung Vice Chairman Yoon Boo-keun at a meeting to discuss achieving a "fair economy" held at COEX in southern Seoul, Friday. / Yonhap |
By Kim Bo-eun
President Moon Jae-in on Friday asked conglomerates to cooperate to enable smaller businesses to also prosper, at a meeting to discuss achieving a "fair economy."
"A fair economy means players are guaranteed fair competition and fairly share the fruit of growth," Moon said at the meeting held at COEX in southern Seoul, Friday.
"The aim of achieving economic democracy is for mom-and-pop stores, small-and medium-sized companies and conglomerates to prosper together," he said.
Achieving a fair economy is among Moon's key pillars of economic policy. Another pillar is growth achieved through increasing income and innovation.
"Fairness was lost in the past processes of economic growth," Moon said.
"The achievements made together were concentrated on the group of conglomerates and small and medium-sized companies were unable to grow together."
This was the first meeting held on the theme of fair economy. The president touched upon the achievements made so far in the past year and six months.
These include the introduction of punitive measures against unfair transactions of retailers which requires them to compensate three times the amount of damages wreaked on businesses. Grounds have also been established so that subcontractors can call for price adjustments when costs of labor or materials rise. Businesses that have been accused of extortion are now banned from taking part in public biddings, and the investigation period for such cases has been lengthened.
"Businesses will develop willingness for innovation if fair competition is guaranteed and they are compensated according to the work they've performed. They will be able to heighten their global competitiveness through enhancing transparency and through fair competition," Moon said.
The president called on the National Assembly and government to make efforts for revisions to related regulations to achieve a fair economy.
Currently, 13 related bills are pending at the Assembly.
He urged the passing of bills to protect the interests of shareholders and creating a system to monitor the management as well as boosting the bargaining power of franchise stores.
At the same time Moon asked that "these changes be enabled not only through regulations, but through voluntary efforts of businesses to make this the norm."
"Now our economy should grow not faster but inclusively and sustainably," he said.
Around 130 people attended the event, including 28 figures from the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, the government and Cheong Wa Dae attended the event. The ministers of justice, trade, industry and energy, SMEs and startups, health and welfare, and the Fair Trade Commission were present. Thirty-four CEOs of conglomerates and SMEs also attended.
Participants discussed establishing means to prevent interests on loans from being unfairly calculated or imposed, creating a guide on opening, managing and closing convenience stores as well as drawing up a comprehensive set of government measures to prevent unfair practices from being imposed on subcontractors.
