In this edition of Business Today, we'll take a look at some of the issues surrounding government-owned
corporations, such as the Korea Electric Power Corporation and the Korea Land and Housing
Corporation.
In 2010, the Korean government set up new guidelines for these corporations to get them
to stop offering free college tuition for their employees' children,... asking the firms
to offer loans instead.
But a recent report says 16 of the public corporations were found to have paid the college
tuitions for their employee's children last year.
For more on this issue, let's now turn to Dr. Kim Byoung-joo, head of KL&P Consulting
and a regular commentator here on Arirang News.
Hello, Dr. Kim.
We know government-owned corporations have given their employees free college tuition
for their children for quite some time,.... and are still doing so,... going against the
government's recent efforts to make them leaner and more cost-efficient.
But now they are increasing their support even further.
Could you tell us more
about
what they're doing?
From what I understand, the government has urged the corporations to give their employees
loans to replace the free tuitions, but even the loans are being offered at unrealistically
low rates.
What's being done about this?
Isn't there greater scrutiny of government-owned corporations?
How is it possible for abuses like these to continue?
Turning to the issue of jobs, public corporations will not be hiring as many new employees in
the second half of the year as expected... and the
public seems disappointed by the news.
But is this just a reflection of
the job market as
a whole?
What future reform efforts we should expect from government-owned corporations?
Dr. Kim, thank you for your insight today.
See you tomorrow.