KCCI's Summer Event
Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry holds 30th Top
Managers University on Jeju Island

The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry(KCCI) held the 30th Top Managers University from July 17-20 at Jeju Shilla Hotel with notable speakers from all walks of society to update CEOs attending the event on various pertinent economic and social issues.
About 250 business leaders participated in the event, which was divided into 12 lectures and the exchange of CEOs, so that the participants would have chances to recharge themselves during the event as well as take a summer recess.
Commerce, Industry and Energy Minister Lee Hee-beom, during his opening speech entitled,?n Industrial Vision and Strategy for Becoming an Advanced Nation,?aid the government worked hard to reform regulations for better business environment, but businesses have been unable to feel it due to the absence of the linkage connecting the change with the actual business conditions.
He assured the participating business leaders that the Korean economy doesn't
so bad to foreign investors yet because the exports are still at a high level and Korea is still an attractive target of foreign investment. "Our economy is still showing healthy signs,"he minister said.
Minister Lee said,"We got to have confidence in our economy," indicating that many business leaders have been belittling themselves like a whale in the well, although the economy is not so bad at all with exports doing so well yet.
Chung Woon-chan, chancellor of Seoul National University, said SNU's admission test papers are intended to balance various regions in the country and admit one-third of total freshmen from the regular admission tests and theme papers. He said the university wants to admit best students and teach them so that they can be great leaders. The purpose of the education lies in teaching as well as selecting good students, cautioning that policies to standardize education needs to be reconsidered for the sake of national development.
The chancellor said the university's
theme paper writing test is designed to test if high school students who finished the entire high school education processes would have the ability to solve problems based on what they learned and weed them out.
Chung Koo-hyun, director of the Samsung Economic Research Institute(SERI), in his lecture entitled,"How Best to Overcome the Limit to Corporate Growth,"said for continued corporate growth, businesses and the government should not cooperate each other.
Chung said the Korean economy can continue to grow only for 10 to 15 years due to the number of population and from 2015 to 2020, the growth rate would only be one to 2 percent per year. The government would not be able to do any thing about it because of its hands are tied due to such factors as interest rates and budgetary problems.
Talking as if small and medium firms are weak ones would not help solve problems, Chung said, calling on the government to watch markets for the sake of sound growth of the market economy and supply manpower and other issues by focusing its policies on supporting growth.
Kim Byung-joon, senior Presidential secretary for policies, in his lecture, entitled,"he Participatory Government's Strategy and Tasks for National Development,'s said the rate of our property taxes is lower than global standards, indicating that the government might raise the rate. He said the government's comprehensive real estate policies to be announced in late August would include raising the real estate tax, adding that the draft law will be submitted for parliamentary approval in September.
He also said the government might increase the supply of mid-sized apartments, but its method, time and the scale have yet to be decided.
Park Yong-sung, chairman of the KCCI, in his speech entitled,?he Solution for the Korean Economy: Market Economy" said all the economic problems should be dealt with market economic principles lest that the problems they become worse and inviting abnormal solutions. He said many economic problems can be solved if the economy is run on market principles.
With regard to workers' wage levels, he said they should depend on supply and demand, but wage levels of some large firms are high because they were decided by force. He said we should find our way to make livingby opening up the service sector to foreign investment and economic policies should be based on market principles so that the people will follow them with the support of the press to achieve the age of $20,000 per capita income earlier than expected.
Stephen Bear, head of the McKenzie Seoul Office, in his speech entitled,"Daring Reform in the Age of Global Competition" said Korean companies
perform well, but their physical qualities are not good. This would determine their success or failure clearly, but they are not trying to boost the soundness of their operations, he pointed out.
He said the increase rate of Korean exports have been declining, currently around 10 percent per year, but what concerns the most is that risk is rising. He said there have been quite a pressure on the prices of the five major export items from Korea, adding that China has become an Achilles heel for Korean exports. China has only about two years to catch up with Korea in electronic home appliances and communication equipment. nw