“Prosecutors May Understand the Inconvenience to the Economic World Caused by the Illegal Fund Investigation”

“I am making, with a strong will, every effort to create a good environment for business,” said President Roh on January 19, stressing that “he is directly handling crucial economic problems such as conflicts between labor and capital, and that he will try his utmost to provide the best service to enterprises.”

Roh made his remarks on that day at a lunch with the 18 leaders of the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), including Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee, LG chairman Koo Bon-moo, Hyundai Motor chairman Chung Mong-koo, Korean Air chairman Cho Yang-ho and Asiana Airlines chairman Park Sam-koo, who were all invited to Cheong Wa Dae and called upon to make an active investment in trust with the government.

Regarding the FKI leaders’ proposal for an early end to the prosecutor’s investigation into large enterprises, Roh said that “the ongoing investigation was made as the result of the prosecutor’s independence, and the prosecutor may also be aware of the inconvenience and worry that the economic world is feeling right now.” He added that “he feels ashamed as a person of politics, but that it will become an opportunity for development in politics,” and he encouraged the economic world to make the investigation into a chance to prevent the recurrence of such affairs.

In addition, Roh said that “when it comes to the problem of regulations, it is important to reduce the time taken to go through regulations as well as to decrease the number of regulations. Let us cooperate with the business world to bring the system in touch with reality.”

At the lunch, business executives explained their plans to expand investment for creation of employment and proposed that Roh ease restrictions on the amount of the money invested in buying other enterprises’ stocks, improve the flexibility in the labor market, relieve the prevailing anti-enterprise mood, foster the domestic capital market and make efforts to pass a Korea-Chile FTA.

Jeong-Hun Kim jnghn@donga.com