New Year Greeting
KCCI holds reception to usher in year 2006 with President Roh among guests

The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry held its new year's reception on January 4 at the COEX in southern Seoul with some 1,000 guests attending including members of foreign diplomatic corp. and President Roh Moo-hyun.
President Roh, in his speech at the gathering, called for restructuring of industry to close the gap between the rich and poor, which has widened in recent years. He said all people should live together as long as it does not hurt the industry's competitive power. He said its competitive strength has upgraded the growth of the economy in recent months. He expects the economy continue to grow this year with the stock market maintaining its upward thrust, raising hopes high that this year will have many good economic news. He said when he first assumed the presidency; the economy was in the doldrums. But it began to continue to perform well drawing a high curve line, adding that it would continue to go upward, not falling into a valley. The potential growth rate of the economy for this year is estimated at 5.2 percent, he said, with a hope that the economic growth will surpass the level. We should all try to on a steady basis, to push the growth to that level, he said. KCCI Chairman Sohn Kyung-shik, in his speech, said we, the government, business, and labor, all the major economic players, should all make efforts together to put the economy on a path towards growth with the economy now showing signs of perking up lately. Businesses should continue to make management reforms, and create new values to be more competitive.
He continued that it is very important for the business community they should not be idle in practicing transparent, clean and sharing management with others and spread it to secure market and public confidence. He said the government should, too, make efforts to remove various factors in the way of flourished business activity and create an environment conducive to business so that facility investment could be kept flowing, which is a critical element for economic growth. On hand at the reception, included Rep. Chung Se-kyun, designate for the post of Minister of Commerce, Industry and Energy, Chung Yun-chul, head of the Audit Bureau, Deputy Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, former MOCIE Minister Lee Hee-beom, heads of the five economic organizations including Kim Jae-chul, chairman of the Korea International Trade Association, Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group, Lee Ku-taek, chairman of POSCO, Park Sam-koo, chairman of Kumho-Asiana Group, Lee Yun-woo, vice chairman of Samsung Electronics and others. Foreign diplomats included Michael Geier, German ambassador to Seoul, and Ning Fukui, Chinese ambassador to Korea. nw

(left photo) KCCI Chairman Sohn Kyung-shik. (right) Heads of KCCI member firms and guests led by President and Mrs. Roh Moo-hyun clap their hands at KCCI's new year gathering Jan. 4.