Minister Kim Jung-kwan of the Ministry of Trade and Industry said on the 14th that the government needs to consider easing the separation of industrial and financial capital regulations. The separation of industrial and financial capital regulations prevents industrial capital such as large corporations from managing financial companies like banks or asset management firms. Because of this regulation, semiconductor corporations cannot create funds to raise large-scale financing.
Earlier, President Lee Jae-myung was reported to have said on the 1st, during a meeting with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, that "as domestic corporations such as Samsung and SK need to actively attract investment to expand the scale of semiconductor plants, we can consider ways to ease the separation of industrial and financial capital regulations."
At a press briefing held at Government Complex Seoul that day, the Minister was asked, "What do you think about the need to ease regulations such as the separation of industrial and financial capital for the semiconductor and artificial intelligence (AI) industries that the Fair Trade Commission is reviewing?" The Minister said, "When considering the separation of industrial and financial capital issue from the perspective of the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOTI), I think it is important to put every effort into building competitiveness in areas such as semiconductors." It is interpreted as meaning that there is a need to consider easing regulations such as the separation of industrial and financial capital to strengthen the competitiveness of semiconductor corporations.
The Minister said, "Regarding the various needs for (regulatory) easing, the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOTI) is comparing them with the issues our major corporations are facing," and added, "Countries around the world are currently trying in various ways to weaken Korea's competitiveness in areas such as semiconductors and batteries and to relocate it to their own countries. We need to take this situation into account."