Dinner at Cheong Wa Dae

President Moon Jae-in invited business leaders to Cheong Wa Dae for dinner on two consecutive nights last week. The meetings took place amid rising concerns that the new President has lacked communication with the business sector.

The top conglomerates have good reason to worry about some of the Moon’s economic policies. The President recently hinted at a tax hike targeting the nation’s top income earners and chaebol during a national fiscal strategy meeting.

Moon has also urged more businesses to turn irregular jobs to regular ones to realize his pledge for an “era of zero irregular workers.” His invitation of the mid-sized food firm Ottogi, which hires a large proportion of regular employees, to the dinner was seen as a message to the nation’s business leaders to get behind his pledge to reduce irregular workers.

The dinners were somewhat different from previous presidents’ business meetings with tycoons. The atmosphere was less formal as they talked over beers and mingled over some finger food before the dinner began. The President seemed to be trying to build rapport with the tycoons by mentioning their hobbies and nicknames. But the meetings were unproductive as some core issues were left out.

The main purpose of such meetings is for the President to hear the difficulties businesses face. There were no meaningful discussions between the President and the business leaders over the Moon administration’s plans for raising the tax rate for top-earning companies and turning irregular jobs into regular ones. The tycoons most likely returned home feeling uneasy about the burdens Moon’s policies will impose on their businesses.

The President should continue to engage actively with conglomerates which are the pillars of the nation’s economy. He should also meet regularly with small and mid-sized companies and IT startups to collect their ideas for economic growth and job creation.