S. Korea to take 'preemptive' efforts to tackle foreign capital shortage: minister

SEOUL, Sept. 26 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will take "preemptive" efforts to stave off a shortage of U.S. dollars in the capital market, which was hit early last week by financial turbulence in the United States, the top economic policymaker said Friday.

"We will stave off problems in the foreign capital markets by taking preemptive
measures against a shortage of money there," Finance Minister Kang Man-soo told
reporters before a policy coordination meeting. "We will continue to make efforts
to stabilize the market."
Kang's comments come amid growing concerns that local companies and banks are
having difficulty securing foreign capital as the global market was shocked
recently by the collapse of U.S. investment giant Lehman Brothers and a broader
fiasco earlier last week.
Kang said that if the Washington-led US$700 billion bail-out package aimed at
buying bad debts from Wall Street passes through Congress by next week, U.S.
financial markets will stabilize. The Seoul government, for its part, will also
step up efforts to help small and medium-sized enterprises cope with recent
instability, he added.
kokobj@yna.co.kr
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