Deputy Prime Minister Choo Kyung-ho: "Reforming Unreasonable Regulations... Will Revise Corporate Tax"

Choi Jin-sik (twelfth from the left), Chairman of the Korea Federation of Medium-sized Enterprises, and Choo Kyung-ho (fourteenth from the left), Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, are taking a commemorative photo after the Medium-sized Enterprise CEO Lecture.
[Photo by Korea Federation of Medium-sized Enterprises]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwak Min-jae] Deputy Prime Minister for Economy Choo Kyung-ho met with mid-sized business owners and expressed his intention to accelerate the reform of unreasonable regulations and the restructuring of corporate and income taxes.

On the 16th, Deputy Prime Minister Choo attended the "Mid-sized Enterprise CEO Luncheon Lecture" hosted by the Korea Federation of Mid-sized Enterprises at the Grand Hyatt Seoul in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, and said, "We will focus our policy capabilities on abolishing unreasonable regulations to eliminate institutional uncertainties that hinder corporate management activities, and on strengthening the fundamental economic structure through bold structural reforms."

The lecture and policy meeting with the Deputy Prime Minister were organized as part of the Federation's government and National Assembly communication enhancement project to share economic and industrial policy directions and improve the effectiveness of policy and support systems.

Before the lecture, Deputy Prime Minister Choo held a policy meeting with mid-sized business owners, including Federation Chairman Choi Jin-sik, to discuss desirable policies for fostering mid-sized enterprises and solutions to management difficulties. The mid-sized enterprise sector proposed improvements to laws and systems that hinder sustainable growth, such as revising the criteria for mid-sized enterprises under the Restriction of Special Taxation Act Enforcement Decree, raising the integrated investment tax credit rate, and lowering inheritance tax rates. They also urged policy innovation aligned with a private sector-led growth policy direction and global standards.

In his opening remarks, Federation Chairman Choi Jin-sik stated, "It is urgent to innovate rigid labor policies that are like cutting the Achilles' heel of our companies on the global stage," adding, "We must rationally improve the 52-hour workweek system and minimum wage system, which disregard market principles, and dramatically boost corporate vitality through bold corporate tax cuts."

In his lecture on "Recent Economic Situation and Policy Direction," Deputy Prime Minister Choo emphasized, "We are mobilizing all available means to stabilize prices and people's livelihoods, our top policy goals, and doing our best to revive the sluggish economy through proactive risk management. We will also accelerate the restructuring of corporate and income taxes so that the burdens on mid-sized and small enterprises, as well as on the lower and middle classes, which have increased significantly due to COVID-19 and global inflation, are quickly alleviated."

He added, "While establishing a sound fiscal stance, we will redesign fiscal rules to significantly expand budgets for socially vulnerable groups, swiftly advance long-standing innovation tasks such as improving the compartmentalized structure of education finance, labor market, and financial reforms."