'Divulge Employees' Wages for Lower Interest Rates'

GNP's chief policymaker denounces banks' move not to disclose management information

Lim Tae-hee, the ruling Grand National Party (GNP)'s chief policymaker, lambasted banks for showing a lukewarm attitude toward the government's move to ensure preemptive restructuring.
In a lecture he gave at a breakfast forum organized by the Korea Association of Machinery Industry (KOAMI) at the Millennium Hilton in Seoul on Feb. 11, Lim said, "Our nation's financial institutions, serving as a channel for bridging funds, are apparently unwilling to divulge their information on management. The disclosure of banks' management information could lead to the possibility of building up public consensus that they are unfair and too engrossed in making profits, which is feared to trigger an opportunity to overhaul them at their disadvantage." "The fact that banks ask for collateral in return for extending loans and earn higher profits due to high interest rates while pegging their employees' welfare and wages at given levels amounts to their attempt to preserve their vested rights by not divulging their information on management," he said. The rationale is that the disclosure of banks' management information could lower their employees' welfare and wage levels, which then gives them an opportunity to reduce interest rates to corporations, he said.
Lim said his party will soon announce policies and bills to institute a system in which corporations would be allowed to restructure their assets easier than ever. The restructuring of marginalized businesses would be a catalyst for turning around the national economy, he said.
Commenting on the disruptions of the National Assembly that have persisted on and off since late last year, Lim said he, as a government official-turned politician, now nine years in politics, shares the belief that the political community should shift into a creative mode, and political circles should come up with solutions to the economic woes that are exacerbated. He noted that one of the parliament's tenets is to settle issues through a majority vote, adding that politicians need to be engaged in last-minute negotiations with minority party politicians and respect their opinions, but those minority politicians should be banned from preempting majority politicians' views. nw

(clockwise) Lim Tae-hee, the GNP's chief policymaker, speaks at a breakfast forum organized by the Korea Association of Machinery Industry (KOAMI).; KOAMI Chairman Chung Ji-taik, concurrently vice chairman of Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction, gives a speech.; and a scene of the forum.