Gov’t OKs Cross Ownership of Dailies and TV Stations

The ban on cross-ownership of newspapers and TV stations will be lifted and competition will be introduced in the TV advertising market to break the virtual monopoly of the Korea Broadcasting Advertising Corp.

The government is also reviewing providing liquidity to cash-strapped automakers with the help of creditor financial institutions.

The Knowledge Economy Ministry, the Korea Communications Commission and the Small and Medium Business Administration briefed President Lee Myung-bak of the plans yesterday at the presidential office in making their 2009 policy report.

The ministry will introduce an employee retention and retraining model to prevent small and medium companies from making massive layoffs.

The government will also seek to raise national export volume from 423 billion dollars this year to 450 billion dollars next year and turn the trade deficit from 10 billion dollars to a surplus of 10 billion dollars.

Investment of 19.5 trillion won (15 billion U.S. dollars) in information technology, software development and energy engineering will be jointly made.

Liquidity of 4.73 trillion won (3.63 billion dollars) will be injected into companies suffering from a cash crunch through the financial capital of the Korea Post.

The ministry will allow the cross ownership of media outlets, promote the convergence of media, and attract fresh investment in the industry.

This is connected with the media reform bill that the ruling Grand National Party proposed, and will likely create a stir in the media market once it passes the Assembly.

The Small and Medium Business Administration will help small companies as its first priority and provide 100 billion won (76.4 million dollars) to street vendors who need deposit money to rent their own shops.

The organization will also raise the credit guarantee fund from 6.3 trillion won (4.8 billion dollars) this year to 8.6 trillion won (66.0 billion dollars) next year.

It will also increase bulk purchases from smaller companies products from 71 trillion won (54.4 billion dollars) to 78 trillion won (59.8 billion dollars).

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