KCCI Set to End Depression from MERS Outbreak

“The nation should put an end to the depression from the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome [MERS] as early as possible to revive the economy,” Chairman Park Yong-maan of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) said at a meeting with KCCI executive members at Lotte Hotel in downtown Seoul on June 22.

The emergency meeting was held on June 22, calling on its 150,000 member companies to make every effort to end the depression from MERZ.

Park stressed the need of voluntary and active participations in the effort by businesses as well as the government to end the depression early; businesses should implement plans for investment and employment on schedule, while the government should iron out all possible measures to stimulate the national economy.

He said that such an effort will help companies take advantage of free trade agreements that the nation has signed with other countries and create a more cooperative labor-management relationship.

In particular, the KCCI chairman said that companies should encourage employees to vacation domestically during the coming summer vacation. 
Park also pledged to boost cooperation with 130 foreign chambers of commerce operating in Korea to dispel concerns among foreign communities over the MERS outbreak.

“Business communities, Korean or non-Korean, should overcome the unfounded MERS concerns and return to normal lives,” the chairman argued, saying, “We will ask foreign business communities here to invest and hire workers as planned. We also would like them to tell their respective countries that it is safe to visit Korea.”
The KCCI chairman then urged the government to introduce a set of stimulus measures to reinvigorate the shrinking economy.

“The government needs to expand financial aid to businesses hit by the MERS outbreak,” Park said, stressing, “At the same time, the government should introduce a large-scale supplementary budget to revitalize the economy, while continuing to ease regulations.”