Business Sector Pledge Ceaseless Restructuring and Management Transparency

The business sector vowed to continuously pursue the corporate restructuring and the ethical management, in response to the government`s deregulation measures such as widening the scope of the exceptions to the equity investment limit.

Top leaders of five major economic organizations including Chairman of the Federation of Korean Industries Kim Kak-Choong, and President of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry Park Yong-Sung, adopted a joint resolution yesterday in the meeting at the Lotte Hotel in Seoul. The resolution contains the enhancement of the transparency of the corporate management, and the practice of the ethical management.

And the business sector submitted to the government the actual results of the restructuring of major corporates and the future plan, which the government had required as a precondition of the deregulation.

The dispute over the methods of the economic reform between the government and the business sector came to an end in the way that both have partially accepted the requests from the other party.

The top leaders of five major economic organizations announced that ``the business sector will make every effort to enhance the competitive edge of the companies, by carrying out staunchly `5+3 major corporate reform principles` and escalating the transparency and the efficiency of the corporate management.``

And they maintained that ``some people have said that the effort of the government and the business sector to improve the business environment signals a withdrawal from the reform. But the business sector`s proposal has been made in order to instigate the willingness to invest and to revitalize the exports.``

The business sector promised to steadily practice the corporate reform principles such as the continuous improvement of corporate governance, the establishment of the transparent accounting, the strengthening of the independent management system of the subsidiaries, and the augmenting the management efficiency through the enhancement of core competency and the improvement of the financial structure.

For the business sector, the top leaders of the major economic organizations plan to have a meeting with Lee Hoi-Chang, the leader of the Grand National Party today, and the presidents of FKI and the Korea Employers Federation, will deliver to President Kim Dae-Jung a series of bottleneck that many companies have.

Vice President & CEO of FKI Shon Byung-Doo told that ``since the government has reviewed the improvement of the economic policy suitable for the changing economic situation, the business sector also will make every effort to recover the economy.``

Park Won-Jae parkwj@donga.com