`Daewoo Auto Sale Negotiations Delay, Cannot Wait Indefinitely`

Vice President and Secretary of the Finance and Economic Department, Chin Nyum, announced on August 17, ``We can`t just sit around waiting for a settlement to the Daewoo Auto negotiations, and if a final agreement cannot be reached by the end of the month, we have to consider other options.``

Vice President Chin`s statement follows on the words of Lee Kun Young, the head of the Financial Supervisory Commission, who said, ``If Daewoo Auto negotiations continue to make very slow progress, an alternative course of action becomes unavoidable.`` and indicates the possibility that the government will take action.

Vice President Chin said in a KBS current events radio program, ``Although creditor banks are taking care of the Daewoo Auto sale negotiations, we cannot just keep on waiting.`` He added, ``We have requested that the creditor banks make the most effort to finish the negotiations by the end of this month. We have made plans to deal with the situation in case the negotiations fail, but I do not think it would be the best thing to speak about that here.``

The interviewer asked ``whether you are considering turning Daewoo into a public enterprise or commissioned management as alternatives.`` to which Chin replied, ``I cannot speak about it because the negotiations are still going on, but we do have alternative plans.``

A high level personnel of the Finance and Economic Department interpreted vice president Chin`s statement, saying, ``There is a high probability that it is aimed toward making the creditor banks conduct the negotiations well. It is a statement designed to accelerate the pace of the negotiations.``

Hyundai Auto flatly rejected talks of commissioned management for Daewoo, saying ``Under no circumstances will there be a commissioned management in Daewoo.`` A high level personnel of Hyundai Auto said, ``Even if the government solicits commissioned management for Daewoo Auto, our course of action will be absolutely to stay away from it.`` He stated, ``This will include Daewoo Auto`s domestic as well as international production sites – we will never get involved in that.`` Another high level Hyundai personnel said, ``We can make cars without problem, but there are restrictions on sales. This is another reason why Hyundai cannot take care of Daewoo.``

yhchoi65@donga.com