The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which recently proposed policy alternatives on inheritance tax and caused confusion by citing faulty external statistics, has rolled out measures to prevent a recurrence. It will strengthen its verification system by designating an executive in charge of fact-checking and using outside experts, and, in addition to an audit by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources, it plans to conduct its own investigation to hold those involved accountable.
On the 9th, KORCHAM said, "We take this matter very seriously and plan to significantly strengthen our internal verification system across the entire process of preparing and distributing materials announced externally so that similar cases never happen again," adding, "Based on our sense of responsibility as a statutory business organization, we decided to immediately implement, starting this week, measures that will allow us to sufficiently verify factual accuracy and statistics."
KORCHAM distributed a press release on the 4th arguing for the need to improve the inheritance tax. In it, KORCHAM cited statistics from the U.K. immigration consultancy Henley & Partners that "due to the excessive burden of inheritance tax, the number of Korean millionaires who left the country last year reached 2,400." However, some media outlets pointed out that these statistics were wrong, and President Lee Jae-myung also said, "It is only right to condemn the act of producing and spreading fake news to pursue private interests and attack government policy."
Even ministers of key government departments joined the criticism. Kim Jung-kwan, Minister of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources, said, "As the ministry overseeing KORCHAM, we will immediately conduct an audit of all the facts," and Koo Yun-cheol, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and Economy, also said, "KORCHAM must bear due responsibility." The National Tax Service, which handles inheritance tax affairs, even released a rebuttal directly through Administrator Lim Gwang-hyeon. Lim said, "Among those who emigrated overseas, the number of people with asset holdings of 1 billion won or more averages 139 per year, which is far different from 2,400."
Chey Tae-won, chairman of KORCHAM, was briefed on the matter during a business trip to the United States and was reported to have strongly rebuked the KORCHAM secretariat, saying, "As a responsible institution, KORCHAM should have thoroughly checked the data," and "Make every effort to ensure that such an incident never happens again."
KORCHAM first decided to overhaul its internal systems across the board. To enhance capability in verifying the reliability of statistics and in analysis, it plans to implement related training for all employees, starting immediately with education programs for staff in charge of surveys and research.
To mandate multi-layered verification of facts and statistics, an executive with statistical analysis capabilities was designated as the fact-checking executive as of the 9th. Park Yang-su, head of KORCHAM's Sustainable Growth Initiative (SGI), will take the role. Park, formerly with the Bank of Korea (BOK), earned a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Illinois, and served as director general of the Economic Statistics Department and as head of the Economic Research Institute at the BOK. Since 2023, Park has been serving as head of KORCHAM's SGI.
KORCHAM also decided to introduce a verification process that uses independent external experts for an additional check to ensure rigorous vetting of releases and accurate communication.
In addition, KORCHAM plans to determine responsibility on its own, separate from the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOTI) audit, and hold those responsible to account.
KORCHAM said, "By strengthening our internal verification system through these measures, we will enhance the credibility of our public releases to provide accurate and transparent information to the public, and we will do our best to ensure that corporations develop together with the nation and the people."