An FKI Survey Says
The Federation of Korean Industries recently conducted a survey with officials at the embassies and commerce chambers of the 50 countries investing the most in South Korea and the respondents expressed some complaints about South Korea’s labor environments and administrative passiveness.
More than 71 percent of the respondents answered that South Korea’s business environments are fairly good. As for why they invest in South Korea, 46 percent mentioned the attractiveness and growth potential of the domestic market, followed by more collaboration with globally well-known South Korean enterprises (22.2 percent) and advanced IT and industrial infrastructure (15.9 percent). Over 76 percent of the respondents recommended South Korea as a place of business to their peer companies yet to enter the South Korean market.
Still, the respondents expressed dissatisfaction when it comes to business regulations in South Korea. Especially, more than half said that tax and labor regulations increased for the past three years. Specifically, 5.3 percent said that tax regulations severely increased and 47.4 percent said that the regulations increased to some extent whereas 36.8 percent and 10.5 percent mentioned no change and improvement, respectively. When it comes to labor environments, the ratios are 21.1 percent, 47.4 percent, 26.3 percent and 5.3 percent, respectively.
In addition, the respondents mentioned the corporate tax cut for foreign-invested companies that was repealed last year, 52-hour workweek and a rapid increase in minimum wage as government policies that affected their business activities the most in the past three years.
Half of those companies are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with the South Korean government’s complaint handling and 45 percent are satisfied with it. As to potential improvements, 42.9 percent answered that the government is still rather passive. Also, 17.9 percent, 17.9 percent and 14.3 percent mentioned the lack of policy consistency, frequent change in person in charge and redundant regulations leading to complex procedures, respectively.