hankyoreh

South Korean President Moon Jae-in makes his opening remarks at a luncheon with veteran economic figures at the Blue House on Apr. 3. (Blue House photo pool)

Veteran figures in the economic and business worlds offered both advice and some tough words about the administration’s management of the economy during an Apr. 3 meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

Moon had a roughly two-hour luncheon meeting that day with eight veteran economic figures including former Board of Audit and Inspection Chairperson Jeon Yoon-chul, former Fair Trade Commission Chairperson Kang Cheol-gyu, former Prime Minister Chung Un-chan, and former Bank of Korea Governor Park Seung. The attendees agreed that the administration’s pursuit of income-driven growth represented the right direction, but also commented on a number of failings in terms of policy management.

“Income-driven growth is a direction we need to follow to achieve mutually beneficial cooperation and reduce polarization, but things like the minimum wage and the 52-hour workweek [cap] need to be supplemented in a way that takes market receptiveness into account,” Jeon was quoted as saying by Blue House deputy Spokesperson Ko Min-jung.

“Both policies increase worker income, but they may come across as difficult from the standpoint of the companies that have to create jobs,” he was also quoted as saying.

Former BOK Governor Park Seung argued that the side effects of income-driven growth were “not a matter of the wrong choice of medicine, but problems with the dosage and administration method.”

“The method of administering it needs to be fixed,” he suggested. Another attendee was quoted as saying, “They say the devil is in the details, and while the direction is the right one, there needs to be a deeper understanding of the reality when the policies are applied.”

Some attendees reportedly stressed the need to offset the polarization produced by income-driven growth. One attendee, who asked to remain anonymous, observed, “It doesn’t make a big difference whether the minimum wage is raised to 10,000 won (US$8.80) by 2020 or 2022, but the increase so far has been too fast.”

“The people who have maintained employment have had their income go up, but there have also been cases of small businesses and SMEs letting their employees go,” the attendee said.

Another attendee suggested establishing close ties between income-driven growth and job creation policies.

“Incomes at the medium and lower levels need to be increased through active private entrepreneurship and company investment,” the attendee said.

The economic veterans also shared some tough advice on the recent withdrawals of Minister and Land, Infrastructure and Transport nominee Choi Jeong-ho and Minister of Science and ICT nominee Cho Dong-ho. One attendee was reported as saying that the Blue House “ought to adopt a humbler stance on appointment issues that it has been showing.”

Moon said the words of advice would be “helpful.”

“The economy is the thing the South Korean public is most worried about, and I hope veterans like you will continue offering advice to help the government move in the right direction,” he said.

In a telephone interview with the Hankyoreh, a junior economist said the administration “needed to hear some insightful feedback with the economy being in such difficult shape, but he seems to have asked only people who would have less harsh words to share.” Kim Tae-dong, former Blue House senior secretary to the president for economic affairs, who recently claimed that Moon had been “besieged” by bureaucrats, was not invited to the meeting that day.

By Lee Wan and Seong Yeon-cheol, staff reporters

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