National Assembly launches Economic Leap Committee on Wednesday
'The longer businesses wait, the more they lose their chance at a great leap forward'
'Assembly members should come and serve as playing coaches'
Chamber delivers business community's proposals to lawmakers
Chey Tae-won, chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, called on the National Assembly to keep pace with corporate innovation. He urged lawmakers to swiftly draft legislation and improve regulations to match the speed of change at businesses.
Chey made the remarks Wednesday morning at the launch ceremony of the National Assembly's Economic Leap Committee, held at the National Assembly. "Competition among businesses is a race against time, and the longer we wait for unpredictable conditions to settle, the more we lose our chance at a great leap forward," he said.
The National Assembly's Economic Leap Committee is a standing cooperative body meant to channel the voices of businesses into legislation and regulatory improvements. It aims to expand future growth engines. It grew out of a proposal that National Assembly Speaker Cho Jung-sik made to Chey at the Jeju Forum in July. The two sides then formed a task force to discuss key agenda items.
Chey stressed that the National Assembly needs to help offset the uncertainty created by the recent complex international situation, which he said has made the business environment unpredictable. "Businesses face the problem of having to wait until (the business environment) becomes clear," he said. "But the international situation lately has not been something you can predict."
"What I am asking of the National Assembly is to reduce domestic variables," he said. "Only then can businesses carry out the investment plans they already have." He added, "Just as businesses constantly develop new technology, laws and regulations also need to keep changing to fit the circumstances. It would help if Assembly members came out directly and served as playing coaches."
Cho and Chey will serve as co-chairs of the Economic Leap Committee, which will run three subcommittees aligned with the National Assembly's standing committees that oversee economic affairs. The chairs of those standing committees will each head a subcommittee directly, discussing specific tasks with the business community.
Kim Seong-won, chair of the Trade, Industry, Energy, SMEs and Startups Committee, will lead the first subcommittee, covering industry. Cho Seung-rae, chair of the Fiscal and Economic Planning Committee, will lead the second subcommittee, covering taxation and fiscal policy. Yoo Dong-soo, chair of the National Policy Committee, will lead the third subcommittee, covering fair trade and capital markets. CEOs from major companies will take part as advisers. They include Samsung, SK Group, Hyundai Motor, LG Group, Hanwha, Lotte, Posco, GS, E-mart, CJ Group, Korean Air, HD Hyundai, Doosan and HS Hyosung.
A task force will support working-level discussions. It is co-led by Yoon Sang-eun, senior policy secretary at the Assembly speaker's office, and Kim Jong-il, standing vice chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Experts from the National Assembly Secretariat, the National Assembly Research Service and the National Assembly Budget Office will join the task force by subcommittee. Chamber staff and outside experts will also take part, helping review bills and policies.
That day, the chamber delivered to the National Assembly a set of proposals from the business community, laying out its key agenda items in concrete form. The first agenda item, "strengthening the competitiveness of strategic industries and boosting corporate vitality," included three recommendations. These were to overhaul regulations on advanced industries, build a system to incentivize corporate growth, and prevent the leakage of advanced technology overseas.
The second agenda item, "expanding future growth engines and strengthening the response to economic security," put forward three proposals. These included fostering and supporting advanced industries such as AI, bolstering support for economic security and supply chain stability, and providing tax support to back corporate growth.
The third agenda item, "revitalizing businesses and improving the financial market system," called for two steps. These were modernizing the fair trade system to improve the corporate business environment and rationalizing regulations to invigorate capital markets.
The committee aims to make the cooperation channel between the National Assembly and the business community a permanent fixture. It seeks to resolve economic issues quickly and strengthen the public's sense that legislation actually works. "Laws and regulations need to change as fast as the pace of corporate innovation for our economy to create new growth opportunities," Kim said. "We will work closely with the National Assembly so that the business community's proposals do not just sit in a drawer, but lead to actual legislation and regulatory improvements."
klee@heraldcorp.com
