Capitalization and Domestic Industry Come First

“Economic recovery through capitalization and domestic industry vitalization” has been selected as the biggest agenda of the government after the general elections take place. “Aggressive union activism” was voted as the biggest roadblock to the development of the Korean economy.

These are results of the survey conducted by Donga Ilbo on April 7 and 8 to 50 economic experts from various fields of society.

To the question of “What should be the main economic agenda of the government after the general elections are over?” 88 percent of the respondents (44 people) answered, “Economic recovery through capitalization and domestic industry vitalization.” “Stable labor-management relation” and “Expansion of economic growth potential” each received 46 percent (23 people) and 44 percent (22 people).

On the other hand, “Measures for mid and low-income earners including reform of the distribution system” only received two percent (one person) of the vote and “Reorganization of the conglomerate structure” earned none, showing that for the present, most economic experts chose to follow “Distribution after development policy.”

To the question of “What would be the biggest roadblock to the revitalization of Korean economy?’ most respondents answered “Aggressive labor activism.” (46 percent, 23 people) Also, “Absence of the growth industry” (42 percent, 21 people), “Absence of political leadership” (34 percent, 17 people), and “Lack of consistency in government policies” (30 percent, 15 people) were also noted as important setbacks to economy recovery.

Most of the respondents (36 percent, 18 people) selected the third quarter of the year as the recovery juncture of the still-staggering domestic industry. “Fourth quarter” and “Next year” each received 32 percent (16 people) and 24 percent (12 people), showing a close accordance to the government’s diagnosis that the domestic industry will soon pick up.

Thirty-two percent (16 people) of the respondents estimated the average forecast of the economic growth rate to be “5.0~5.4 percent,” while 18 percent (nine people) answered “4.5~4.9 percent,” and 14 percent (seven people) answered “4.0~4.4 percent.”

The evaluation on the “Lee Hun-jai economic team” was fairly positive, with 62 percent of the respondents answering “Satisfying” and two percent deemed it “Outstanding.”