The IMF said yesterday that an economic recovery is on its way in South Korea, where growth is expected to reach 4.75 percent next year.
"We believe that an economic recovery is on its way in Korea, with growth likely to accelerate to around 4.75 percent in 2004 and 5.5 percent in 2005," the fund's Asia-Pacific chief, Joshua Felman, said in a statement.
The statement followed policy consultations between an IMF team and South Korean economic officials.
Felman said South Korea should step up corporate reforms to curb the practice of conglomerate owners exerting more control over a company than their share holdings warranted.
"Since the Asian crisis, Korean corporate governance has improved considerably but problems still remain, especially in firms where those who control the company's operations actually own only a small fraction of the shares," he said.
Critics say top conglomerates in South Korea are still engaged in cross-unit transactions to subsidize weaker operations.
Felman urged South Korea to maintain supportive macro-economic policies saying its current fiscal deficit should be eliminated.
"The only question is how quickly this should be done. In our view, it would be unwise to tighten the budget in 2004, as this could undermine the recovery, which is still in a very early stage," he said.
He called for the early sale of government holdings in three investment trust firms -- Hyundai Investment Securities, Korea Investment Securities and Daehan Investment Securities.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
Taiwan has experienced its most significant improvement in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, data provided on Sunday by international higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) showed. Compared with last year’s edition of the rankings, which measure academic excellence and influence, Taiwanese universities made great improvements in the H Index metric, which evaluates research productivity and its impact, with a notable 30 percent increase overall, QS said. Taiwanese universities also made notable progress in the Citations per Paper metric, which measures the impact of research, achieving a 13 percent increase. Taiwanese universities gained 10 percent in Academic Reputation, but declined 18 percent
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