President Lee Myung-bak on Wednesday promised to dedicate himself to improving the competitiveness of Korea's financial industry, establishing an advanced financial system and training professional finance workers by opening up, merging and privatizing corporations.
Lee's message was read by Kwak Seung-jun, presidential secretary for national policy planning, at the Seoul International Financial Forum. Lee pledged to work hard so that the nation can "foster leading global investment banks and emerge as an Asian financial hub."
Lee also promised to end the "outmoded" government control over finance and ease the ban on conglomerates from owning more than a 4 percent stake in banks in order to bring the nation in line with global financial standards.
Korea "has grown into the world's 10th largest economy. But its financial industry has failed to move in tandem with the country's economic development, lagging behind the global competition. We need to take wide-ranging and epoch-making measures to make the financial industry advanced," Lee's message said.
He urged financial firms to "change drastically, take on challenges with entrepreneurial spirit, and outperform their rivals in the global market and in competition."
