Industrial Electric Bill Frozen Next Year

The government decided to freeze the coming year’s industrial electric bill and maintain it at this year’s level in order to promote the manufacturing capital investment and to accelerate the activation of general operations.

The government is also planning to expand LG. Philips LCD industrial complex which will open in Gyeonggi-do Paju, from its previous size of 500,000 pyong to 1,000,000 pyong.

The government held the State Council meeting and its first “Corporate Capitalization Solution Conference” and announced the following as part of the government’s plan to support the capitalization of domestic corporations.

The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy announced at the conference held in Seoul Myungdong Bank Hall, presented by Kim Jin-pyo, the Minister of Finance and Economy, Yun Jin-shick, the Commissioner of the Ministry of Commerce, and other business leaders, that it will freeze the industrial electricity bill which was planned to be increased by 2.5 percent.

Through this bill, the domestic manufacturers will be able to save as much as 241 billion won on electricity bills in the upcoming year.

The Ministry also announced during the morning state council briefing session that it has “finished consulting the government agencies involved in generating a new industrial complex in the expanded region around LG. Philips LCD Paju factory.”

Currently, the land for LG. Philips LCD industrial complex is being negotiated for purchase, and with the additional industrial complex formed, the entire region of Paju will turn into a 1,000,000-pyong LCD industrial complex.

Regarding the issue, the Ministry of Environment has agreed to finish the Environmental Impact Assessment before next February and the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy has also decided to extend the date of infrastructure construction by three months to September 2005.

The government has announced that it will lower the current annual interest rate on Economical Device Fund Loan from 5.5 percent to 4.9 percent. The government will also prolong the Small Business Extraordinary Tax Reduction system and Technology Transfer Royalty Reduction Bill for another two years and extend the provisional investment tax credit system until next June.

Other policies include deciding upon the specifics for the Supporting the Small Business Workforce special legislation bill in order to defuse the lack of workforce problem in the small and medium sized businesses.

The government and the business management sector will hold a “Corporate Capitalization Solution Conference” on a monthly basis, and Minister of Finance and Economy and the commissioner of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy will take turns to lead the conference.

In the first meeting, many business leaders including Kang Shin-ho, president of the Federation of Korean Industries, Park Yong-sung, president of The Korean Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Kim Jae-chul, president of Korea International Trade Association, Jang Ji-jong, vice president of Korean Federation of Small and Medium Businesses, and Kim Young-bae, managing director of the Korea Employers Federation were present.

Eun-Woo Lee libra@donga.com