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.
PLA MANEUVERS: Although Beijing has yet to formally announce military drills, its coast guard vessels have been spotted near and around Taiwan since Friday The Taiwanese military is on high alert and is closely monitoring the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) air and naval deployments after Beijing yesterday reserved seven airspace areas east of its Zhejiang and Fujian provinces through Wednesday. Beijing’s action was perceived as a precursor to a potential third “Joint Sword” military exercise, which national security experts said the PLA could launch following President William Lai’s (賴清德) state visits to the nation’s three Pacific allies and stopovers in Hawaii and Guam last week. Unlike the Joint Sword military exercises in May and October, when Beijing provided detailed information about the affected areas, it
CHINA: The activities come amid speculation that Beijing might launch military exercises in response to Lai’s recent visit to Pacific allies The Ministry of National Defense (MND) yesterday said China had nearly doubled the number of its warships operating around the nation in the previous 24 hours, ahead of what security sources expect would be a new round of war games. China’s military activities come amid speculation Beijing might organize military drills around the nation in response to President William Lai’s (賴清德) recent visit to Pacific allies, including stops in Hawaii and Guam, a US territory. Lai returned from the week-long trip on Friday night. Beijing has held two rounds of war games around Taiwan this year, and sends ships and military planes
Five flights have been arranged to help nearly 2,000 Taiwanese tourists return home from Okinawa after being stranded due to cruise ship maintenance issues, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications announced yesterday. China Airlines Ltd (中華航空), and EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) have arranged five flights with a total of 748 additional seats to transport 1,857 passengers from the MSC Bellissima back to Taiwan, the ministry said. The flights have been scheduled for yesterday and today by the Civil Aviation Administration, with the cruise operator covering all associated costs. The MSC Bellissima, carrying 4,341 passengers, departed from Keelung on Wednesday last week for Okinawa,
‘UNITED FRONT’: Some Taiwanese industry leaders had not initially planned to attend, but later agreed to do so after Beijing threatened them, a source said China hopes to rebuild its supply chain by wooing Taiwanese businesses at this year’s Cross-Strait CEO Summit (CSCS) to be held today in the Chinese city of Xiamen, a source said yesterday. This year’s summit would focus on “building a cross-strait industrial chain in the new era and promoting cross-strait economic integration and development,” promotional materials for the event said. The aim is to encourage Taiwanese businesspeople who have exited the Chinese market to return and invest there as a means of countering various technology export controls that China has been encountering, the source said. Former premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) and
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