[Editorial] Roh Should Pay Attention to the Economists’ Advice

In a luncheon meeting with the executives of the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), President Roh Moo-hyun said that he would either leave out or change his personal thoughts that he has persisted, for the sake of nation’s economy. In addition, he suggested some detailed policy goals to provide more favorable condition for doing business, such as reducing more than 50 percent of management- labor conflicts and contracting the process of passing economic regulations, and so on.

If those things work out as Roh planned, it will likely contribute a lot to disperse the anxieties that business companies have had against President Roh’s viewpoint on the economy.

However, President Roh’s recognition of the economic reality doesn’t seem serious enough still, and therefore it casts half a doubt on the feasibility of his new plans. Illegal strikes of national railways company, truck drivers unions, Choheung bank labor unions have given hard times to the public and the nation’s economy last year, but Roh insisted that number of days of labor loss “was diminished to 20 percent last year” and “most of them were legitimate strikes.” Years of businesses propelled by the government are suspended in front of “the law on demand” and yet he voiced up for “no uncertainty in policies,” although the political situation turned gray due to his “staking on the re-confidence in the presidency.”

President Roh, before asking what is uncertain, should be all ears on the heartfelt statement that 411 college professors specialized in economics and business administration had announced. The professors deplored that fickleness and struggles from interest groups replaced the leadership of economy, and flattering for sweet policy has occupied the fundamental measures for unemployment and household debts.

How tough it must have been for the college professors to tolerate and eventually deliver an emergency statement, which usually happened during the military dictatorship era in the past? As professors pointed out, the current Korean economy is losing its developing engine, getting rid of economic leadership, and also the entrepreneurship has fallen: in a word, crisis. The leadership that can wake up the drowning economy is keenly required. As a first step, President Roh has to see the reality as it is and react.