Invest KOREA

According to Yonhap News,

(SEOUL = Yonhap News) Korean President Park Geun-hye announced on Monday that the Korean government will boldly improve regulations to vitalize investments for the domestic economy and create a world-class business environment.

Park attended a New Year’s greeting ceremony with business leaders at COEX, Samseong-dong, in Seoul, and said that the government will concentrate its efforts on vitalizing the domestic economy, creating more jobs and improving the country’s economic infrastructures.

The greeting ceremony was the third public event Park attended in 2014. The president paid a visit to the National Cemetery on January 1, and attended a New Year’s greeting ceremony with arts leaders and a New Year’s concert last Friday.

“As the government has set economic revitalization as its top priority for 2014, the greeting ceremony was an opportunity for the president to encourage business leaders and promise to work closely to vitalize investments and increase the effects of a creative economy throughout the year,” said an official of Cheongwadae about the President’s attendance at the ceremony.

“We promise to improve regulations and expand infrastructures for the development of the service industry, and create a new growth engine by achieving tangible results from the creative economy,” said Park.

“It is very important that the ‘warmth’ of the economic recovery spills over into all of society, so the government will focus on creating an economic ecosystem that promotes co-development and mutually beneficial relationships between large conglomerates and small- and medium-sized enterprises as well as between the metropolitan areas and rural areas.”

“We will also work hard to help young people and women realize their dreams and find happiness in their daily lives by offering opportunities to achieve a work-life balance,” the president added.

“2014 will be a critical juncture for Korea to get its economy back on track, otherwise it will suffer further economic downturn,” said Park. “Although the global economy has started to show signs of recovery, significant uncertainties including the reduction of the quantitative easing of the United States and low yen remain. In Korea, we also face various factors including labor-management relations, public sector reform and inter-Korean relations, which may have an impact on the country’s economy.”

Park also called for close cooperation between the government and businesses to maintain a recovery trend and help Korea make a leap forward in economic growth. “I hope that the government and businesses will take the lead role in vitalizing the economy and creating jobs through aggressive investment, drastic innovation and creative management,” she said.

The president also urged the formation of new and cooperative labor-management relations in order to prevent controversy between labor and management from adversely affecting economic growth.