The business community welcomed prime minister nominee Han Seong-sook as the right person to lead innovation and growth together.
The six business groups, including the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, The Federation of Korean Industries, the Korea International Trade Association, the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Enterprises, the Korea Enterprises Federation, and the Federation of Middle Market Enterprises of Korea (FOMEK), said in a joint statement on the 8th, "We welcome President Lee Jae-myung's nomination of Minister of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups Han Seong-sook as the new prime minister nominee," adding, "In particular, we find this nomination more meaningful because the nominee is a former business leader who has directly led the front lines of corporate management."
The business community assessed that the nominee is a first-generation expert in Korea's information technology (IT) industry who, as Naver's first female CEO since the company's founding, helped drive the growth of the country's digital economy. They said, "(The nominee) is a rare economic leader who has experienced both private management and policy on the ground, having served as chair of the Korea Internet Corporations Association and as the current administration's first Minister of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups," adding, "As a nominee who knows corporations' concerns and the market's language better than anyone, we expect that experience to lead to balanced policy formulation and execution."
The business community judged that Korea's economy stands at a critical juncture where it must find new growth engines amid the great shift to artificial intelligence (AI), a reorganization of global supply chains, changes in the trade environment, and the burdens of low birthrates and an aging population. In this situation, the nominee understands changes on the industrial front better than anyone and has directly led the digital and AI transition of small and midsize enterprises and small business owners, making the nominee the right person to lead innovation and growth together, according to the business community.
The six business groups stressed, "We expect the new prime minister nominee to take the lead in regulatory innovation and in creating a business-friendly environment based on communication with corporations, laying the groundwork for active corporate investment and job creation," adding, "To ensure those outcomes translate into growth for all people, the business community will also do its utmost to cooperate as a responsible partner."
President Lee on the 7th nominated the nominee to succeed Prime Minister Kim Min-seok. The nominee, a former Naver CEO, was appointed Minister of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups in June last year and was nominated as prime minister about a year later. If the nominee is appointed prime minister after a National Assembly confirmation hearing, she will become the second female prime minister in 20 years, following former Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook, who served during the Roh Moo-hyun administration.