Top Managers College

KCCI hosts annual event on Jeju July 25-28 to enlighten CEOs with new biz trends

Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry(KCCI) held its 32nd Top Managers College at Hotel Lotte on Jeju Island form July 25-28 with the subject of 'CEO with Innovation and Changes, Create New Future.'Among some 400 participants in the top business managers gathering included KCCI Chairman Sohn Kyung-shik, Commerce, Industry and Energy Minister King Young-ju, Chancellor Han Seung-joo of Korea University, Vice Chairman Lee Sun-jong of Hanhwa Group, and President Cho Kook-pil of Ssangyong Co.
KCCI Chairman Sohn, in his opening keynote speech, said the economy has been suffering from high costs and low effectiveness, but the labor strife has not been eased and it ought to be turned into cooperative relations to boost productivity from confrontational situation, the KCCI chairman called out.
He continued to say that regulations on business activities have their own purposes, but those administrative regulations should be eased drastically to make the country a better place to do business and it requires a high-level government decision. In the past, the government played a great role in boosting the development of the Korean economy, but now what is required are creativity and self-rule, which needs a drastic reduction in government regulations barring business activities, he said.
He also said manpower is the competitive power itself, and we are at war to secure talented manpower. China has been calling back its students studying overseas, in contrast what we have been doing: Sending talented personnel overseas. He said what we need at the present time a government-level manpower training strategy.
MOCIE Minister Kim said, in his speech entitled, "The direction of industrial policies in the age of FTA,"a country needs a leading innovation strategy to catch up with advanced countries in terms of original technologies, warning that the technologies that led the country's manufacturing and production have reached their limit. He said Korea has been able to position itself within the 10 largest economies in the world with world-level technologies and production, but the rules of the game has been changed now and a number of new developing countries including China emerged on the scene changing business environment both at home and abroad.
Minister Kim said to be a leading innovator for reform, we ought to strengthen the capacity for reform and expand overseas operations and open the country more to foreign businesses, deepen cooperation between large and small firms and advance out economy. He went on to stress that Korea should take on 7 major technologies as its major areas of industry from now including display industry, robotics, nano base technology, all totaling 15 different industrial sectors to develop their core technologies through creative efforts and secure them under creative and open-type technology reform strategies sustain them as futuristic growth engines and continue to create such growth engines, crucial to the sustainable economic development. He also called for international cooperation in the areas of R&D, which is growing in importance.
Next month, MOCIE will cooperate with other related ministries to draw up strategies for a joint development of technologies with foreign countries and push "KORUS Tech"a joint R&D program with businesses, universities and research institutes in Korea and the United States to spur an open-type technological reform strategies, he said.
President Chung Koo-hyun of Samsung Economic Research Institute, said, in his speech entitled, "Sandwiched Korean economy and how to overcome it."said Korean business men sure can still find a room for development, although the economy is surrounded by Japan and China, taking the situation as an opportunity to double up their energy.
He said the sandwich talk is meant to encourage the Korean business community to work harder to boost the growth of their businesses, although it is true that China is catching up fast in terms of technology. But he said there still is distance between China and the first-rate companies in the world in terms of competitiveness. It also is true that China is fast developing its economy, than Korea does in catching with Japan, but there are distances between the three neighboring countries yet, calling the sandwich talk is meant to spur Korea to intensify its efforts to run faster economically. nw

KCCI Chairman Sohn Kyung-shik delivering a speech on the podium at Lotte Hotel in Jeju to open the Top Managers College by KCCI.