Roh Considering Adopting Collective Lawsuit System for Shareholders As Soon As Possible

President-elect Rho Moo-hyun made it clear on Jan.17, “I will adopt a system under which shareholders are allowed to file collective lawsuits and ease ambiguous and groundless regulations concerning stock trading.”

He also said, “In the envisioned special economic zones, fields of medicine and education will be open to foreigners first and give special considerations to full guarantee of labors’ rights while preventing possible labor-management disputes.”

The president-elect attended Jan.17 at a joint economic policy conference at Hotel Lotte in downtown, Seoul with representatives from the America Chamber of Commerce and Industry and European Unions Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Korea and put forward a “blue print of the new government’s economic policies.”

“The collective lawsuit system for shareholders has become an international norm. I don’t think to adopt such a system is not a radical or shocking move,” he was quoted as telling to the audience, hinting his strong willingness to implement the system in earlier days in his term of office. He also stressed, “Window-dressing accounting practices should be rooted out by putting new accounting regulations in place and the new accounting regulations should take root as corporate practices. Also auditing should be carried out in a neutral and transparent manner.”

He also mentioned on privatizations of state-run companies. He said, “I will give due considerations again to the privatization of some state-control companies which necessarily enjoy monopolies or highly promote public interest. In case of the energy industry, competition among companies can be allowed in terms of generating power but competition for distribution of power may not be possible,” hinting he is considering carrying out privatization of power generating companies in a pronged manner by dividing them into power generation and power distribution.

The president-elect suggested, “I will push ahead with a project to establish gas pipelines through which Siberian-produced gases will be sent to Japan by way of Korea and to that end, he will form a special task force for the project in Chung Wa Dae.”

The joint economic policy conference in downtown, Seoul, was held with around 800 foreign businessmen and ambassadors, including Chairman of the America Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Korea Obelline, Chairman of the E.U. Chamber of Commerce and Industry Hamsink and U.S. Ambassador to Korea Thomas Hubbard.

American news broadcasting network CNN aired live the President-elect Roh’s keynote speech and answers to questions made by participants at the conference for 45 minutes.

Young-Hae Choi yhchoi65@donga.com