President-elect Lee Myung-bak said Wednesday that he will not resort to excessive measures such as boosting government spending to achieve 7 percent economic growth. The comments reflect his stance that it would be unreasonable to take irrational steps to try to live up to his campaign pledge of achieving an average annual economic growth rate of 7 percent during his tenure.
At a meeting on Wednesday with the heads of 10 state-run and private economic think-tanks, including the Korea Development Institute and Samsung Economic Research Institute, Lee said Korea must seek out growth engines in order to make the economy grow without the help of pump-priming measures. It's the job of businesses rather than the government to find those growth engines, he added.
When asked for their frank opinions on his 7 percent growth pledge, some of the experts said 6 percent growth would be possible if regulations are eased.
The president-elect said one problem Korea has is an anti-market and anti-business sentiment, even though the government claims to uphold democracy and a free market economy. There are people who tend to shun the word "business-friendly," Lee said, but he intends to use that term very often and plans to create a pro-business government.
But Lee said businesses must enhance their management transparency and change social perceptions so that successful businesses can be respected and supported.
Regarding a request by the heads of the think-tanks to lower corporate taxes, Sa Gong-il, head of the National Competitiveness Reinforcement special committee of the presidential Transition Committee, commented positively, saying that doing so would also lower taxes paid by workers.
Kang Man-soo, an official on the economic team of the Transition Committee, said the new government intends to minimize tax rates while removing regulations that do not exist in advanced countries.
Hyun Jung-taik, head of the KDI, said state-run companies must be privatized since half of their workers are unnecessary, and suggested the new administration's biggest challenge is whether it will be able to reform Korea's bureaucratic system.
Hyun advised that government reforms should be achieved quickly, within two weeks, after gaining a majority seat in the National Assembly.
