{"id":2197124,"date":"2022-06-29T18:58:59","date_gmt":"2022-06-29T09:58:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nknews.org\/pro\/?p=2197124"},"modified":"2023-04-05T16:12:13","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T07:12:13","slug":"how-south-koreas-market-friendly-policies-impede-innovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/2022\/06\/how-south-koreas-market-friendly-policies-impede-innovation\/","title":{"rendered":"How South Korea\u2019s market-friendly policies impede innovation"},"content":{"rendered":"
South Korea has a <\/span>complicated<\/span><\/a>, love-hate relationship with its chaebol, the family-owned conglomerates that have dominated business in the country for decades.<\/span><\/p>\n Lauded for fast-tracking the country\u2019s economic growth, and loathed for their monopolistic grip and exploitative practices, the corporate giants have seen regulations on them fluctuate over the years in accordance with the political ideologies of the party in power. Under the new Yoon Suk-yeol administration, the pendulum has swung to the side of love again.<\/span><\/p>\n The conservative government\u2019s <\/span>economic policy direction<\/span><\/a> released in mid-June features a corporate tax cut from 25% to 22%, <\/span>lower taxes on inheritance and financial transfers<\/span><\/a>, along with revisions to labor laws.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n These changes deliver what the country\u2019s biggest companies have long <\/span>lobbied for<\/span><\/a>, but they appear to do so at the expense of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which get little attention in Yoon\u2019s policy proposals so far.<\/span><\/p>\n The danger is that this will limit the space for SMEs to operate and stifle innovation in the long run. Moreover, as the vast majority of South Koreans work for SMEs, not chaebol, there\u2019s little reason to conclude that Yoon\u2019s free-market approach will translate into improvements for the country as a whole.<\/span><\/p>\n