Lee urges crisis-hit conglomerates to speed up restructuring

By Yoo Cheong-mo

SEOUL, Dec. 26 (Yonhap) -- President Lee Myung-bak on Friday urged domestic industrial conglomerates to voluntarily carry out sweeping restructuring measures in return for state financial support and to survive the current global economic crisis.

Lee said after briefings on the government's key industrial policies for 2009 by
relevant ministries that a "preemptive, sweeping and voluntary" restructuring
would be necessary for private conglomerates to secure global competitiveness in
their respective fields.
The president also said his government would shift the focus of its industrial
policies away from the promotion of conglomerates' growth and towards the market
in a bid to better support their restructuring efforts and competitiveness.
"The government is willing to selectively extend its assistance to some
industries. Prior to that, however, large conglomerates have to make efforts to
restructure themselves," said Lee at the meeting attended by top officials of the
Ministry of Knowledge Economy and the Korea Communications Commission (KCC).
"Private enterprises will surely struggle with business difficulties. Large
conglomerates should take this as an opportunity to upgrade their international
competitiveness through a preemptive, sweeping and voluntary restructuring," he
said, stressing closer private-government cooperation would be needed to overcome
the crisis.
The president's remarks came as local construction, shipbuilding and auto
companies are seeking massive government bailout funds and measures to weather
the deepening global business slump.
Lee reiterated that the nation's real economy is expected to bottom out during
the first or second quarter of next year.
In the communications sector, meanwhile, Lee instructed the KCC to take measures
to accelerate the fusion of information, communication and broadcasting
industries. He stressed the moves should be prompted by economic, not political,
considerations.
"The broadcasting and communications industries are capable of creating new job
opportunities and are spearheading a new technological fusion. In this sense, the
fusion should be approached through an economic rather than political logic,"
said Lee.
"The broadcasting-communication fusion will also offer a new growth locomotive
for the Korean economy. The introduction of advanced IPTV (Internet protocol
television) technologies will be helpful to such an effort," said the president.