[Editorial] Politics vs. Economy

Every reader who encountered the e-mail written by a wife to her husband in Libya construction site saying, “I shed tears when I think of you who cannot cope with hot weather very well” would have been touched. Even as we speak 4,863 workers of 178 companies are working hard away from their families in the desert countries to earn oil dollars. With their diligence and desire despite bad working conditions, Korea won contracts worth up to $16.5 billion from foreign countries and has become number two as a global construction country.

They have to fight with not only local disease but in countries of unstable political condition they also have to worry about the threat of kidnapping and terrorism. Nine workers of Daewoo E&C have been kidnapped by militants in Nigeria. We hope for their safe and fast return.

The economic flower that bloomed with sweat and blood is beautiful. However, looking at domestic politics and economy, we can only sigh. Lack of jobs, insufficient investment, big company labor union’s demonstrations and an unclear Korea-U.S. FTA only present a dark cloud over the Roh administration. However, this government, by not looking after its economy, is shaking the country with its revision of constitution talk. When the citizens do not have a clear direction of government administration policy, it seems like the Roh administration is only concentrating on revisions of constitution propaganda.

It is hard to find civil servants who work for his country’s benefit regardless of politics. The only argument we hear is tightening companies’ belts according to the government’s code. Maybe it seems natural that 82 percent of entrepreneurs cry out that entrepreneurship is being decreased due to the anti-business environment. Furthermore, 28 percent of middle-to-small company CEOs are thinking of selling their companies due to hard business, which is the biggest among five Asian countries.

The World Economic Forum announced this year’s top five global economic threats as the continuous weakening of dollars, oil shock, economic hard-landing of China, financial distress of developed countries due to aging and sudden decrease of real estate value. However, the Korean government and political sectors are not focusing any of its attention to these problems.

Unstable leadership increases the uncertainty of our economy. Companies are not able to set their sales goals for this year. However, the government continues to strangle the company’s ankles with political issues, including investment authorization and real estate policy. It is time to think about the thankful economic labor in the desert.