Lee urges chaebols to seek balanced growth with smaller firms

SEOUL, May 16 (Yonhap) -- South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said Monday that family-controlled conglomerates in the country should make efforts for balanced growth with smaller firms.
In a meeting with some 400 businessmen running smaller firms, Lee said the country's family-owned business groups, called chaebols in Korean, should change their governance style, thus helping co-prosperity between large firms and smaller firms take root.
"CEOs of large firms are focused on business results, which means sacrifices of others," Lee said.
"Large firms and smaller firms need to respect each other," he said.
Lee, a former CEO of a local construction firm, has been pressing for balanced growth between conglomerates and smaller firms.
Chaebols have long been accused of unfair treatment of subcontractors, prospering through huge exports and growing domestic market shares while small and medium-sized companies suffered financial troubles.
Lee's efforts to address the problem are cast as part of his "fair society" campaign and his move to reach out to low-income people, which stand as the pillars of his policy in the latter half of his five-year tenure.
sam@yna.co.kr