Government and Ruling Party to Listen to Grievances of Businesses on Site

July 13, 2017

Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission

The Republic of Korea

The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC, Chairperson Pak Un Jong) announced on July 13 that the Commission would host an on-site business grievance meeting jointly with the ruling party, Democratic Party (DP) to deliver on the new administration’s pledge of actively addressing grievances of the socially underprivileged. This meeting will be held on July 14 at Korea Federation SME in Seoul and attended by 60 small and micro business operators.

The ACRC has organized the on-site business grievance meeting since 2014. The meeting has been a practical means for the Commission to meet businesspersons and listen to and address their grievances on site. The upcoming meeting is especially meaningful since the entire government is seeking to provide assistance to small and micro enterprises.

With the DP co-hosting the meeting, the ACRC expects that grievances will be raised at the meeting will parliamentary discussion to seek measures to handle them.

At the meeting, DP floor leader, Woo Sang-ho and ACRC Vice chairperson and Secretary General, Kim In-soo will listen to grievances of 60 operators of small and micro businesses, women-owned businesses, disabled people-owned businesses, social enterprises, ICT start-ups and franchisees, and talk with them to solve their concerns.

Professional counselling staffs from seventeen relevant institutions and associations related to business assistance will also participate in the meeting to listen to difficulties of businesspersons and provide information that they need.

The ACRC and DP will address complaints raised at the meeting through a consultation with relevant authorities on site. Complaints that can not be handled during the meeting will be registered as business grievances and processed. For complaints requiring policy or institutional improvement, the ACRC will seek to address them in consultation with the DP.

An official from the ACRC said, “The ACRC will continue to hold the on-site business grievance hearing to address grievances of SMEs and contribute to job creation, which is one of the national agenda.

Meanwhile, the ACRC has held the on-site grievance meeting 29 times and met with 1,400 businesspersons. Among the 379 complaints raised at the meeting, 152 cases were addressed. By content of complaints, the largest share (15%) were about demanding improvement of business environment such as by supporting products marketing and building industrial infrastructure.