This file photo shows the buildings of South Korea’s major companies in Seoul. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Nov. 19 (Korea Bizwire) — Foreign investment companies registered in South Korea feel most uncomfortable about the government’s introduction of the new workplace disaster law and raising the minimum wage, a survey showed Thursday.
The Korea Enterprises Federation, a major business lobby group, conducted a survey of 220 foreign investment companies with more than 50 employees each.
Asked about the most uncomfortable government policies or legislation, 29.2 percent of foreign investment companies with than 300 employees picked the introduction of the severe disaster law, followed by raising the minimum wage (27.7 percent) and the introduction of the 52-hour workweek policy (18.5 percent).
Foreign investors with fewer than 300 employees felt most uncomfortable about increases to the minimum wage (45.2 percent).
Asked about whether the current government has improved the environment for foreign investment, 52.3 percent believed that there was no improvement, 10 percentage points higher than those who responded otherwise (42.3 percent).
Another 27.7 percent of foreign investors said there was an exclusive risk when investing in South Korea.
As for the risk factors, foreign investors pointed to ‘unclear legislation’ (31.1 percent), ‘unexpected, inconsistent administrative regulations’ (27.9 percent) and ‘rigid labor regulations and unfriendly management and labor relations’ (24.6 percent).
Ashley Song (ashley@koreabizwire.com)
