To prevent the phenomenon known as 'Peter Pan syndrome' where corporations avoid growth, the government will transition its corporate support system to a 'gradual reduction' model. This is to resolve issues where corporate activities become passive to avoid drastic decreases in government support benefits as they grow from small to medium enterprises and from medium to large enterprises.
On 5th, during the first meeting of the growth strategy task force chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Koo Yoon-cheol at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the government announced plans for system improvements based on corporate size.
The government stated that it will design the corporate support system in such a way that government support benefits do not sharply decrease with corporate growth. The criteria and methods for support will be established through future discussions and set in various ways.
The three-tier standard of large, medium, and small will be changed to specific sales levels or the number of employees, aiming to gradually reduce government support to prevent corporations from putting the brakes on their own growth.
Corporation regulations will also be comprehensively reviewed. Considering economic growth and the development of the capital market, there will be a plan to improve regulations on medium and large corporations to meet global standards.
If using corporate size criteria in legislation, plans are to comprehensively review changes to regulatory standards in line with the purpose of the law along with the need for regulations.
The rationalization of economic penalties will also be pursued. A massive overhaul of the penal system will be carried out to alleviate criminal punishment risks for chief executive officers (CEOs) along with relieving the management burdens of small businesses and medium enterprises.
Penal regulations will be relaxed, and instead, the focus will be on converting criminal sanctions into economic penalties by strengthening fines and penalty surcharges.
In cases where violations are not serious or are not intentional or gross negligence, there are plans to uniformly relax penal regulations or establish exemption clauses. However, if there is a victim, there will be a policy to strengthen liability for damages. Additionally, penalties will be strengthened by raising penalty surcharges and fines for malicious unfair trading such as stock manipulation and crimes that threaten life and safety.
A Ministry of Economy and Finance official said, 'We will continue to listen to field opinions in collaboration with related ministries through relay on-site meetings and the economic penalty rationalization task force,' adding, 'We will prepare tasks for system improvements to promote corporate growth.'