Anchor: The government has announced a three-step corporate restructuring plan. The Financial Services Commission will begin from tackling urgent problems in the shipping and shipbuilding sectors before moving eventually to the steel and petrochemical industries, which are deemed overcrowded with competitors.
Our Bae Joo-yon reports.

Report: The head of South Korea’s financial watchdog has revealed the government's three-pronged plans to restructure the nation's struggling industries.

Financial Services Commission(FSC) head Yim Jong-yong on Tuesday introduced the blueprint as he sat down with government and state-run bank officials to discuss corporate restructuring.

The watchdog chief said the first-track measures would focus on restructuring the shipbuilding and shipping industries suffering from record losses as well as other sectors sensitive to the global economic downturn. 

After creditors lead urgent restructuring efforts under guidelines by the government's public panel, the second prong will then concentrate on longer-term workout efforts for struggling companies based on lenders' credit evaluation of individual firms.

Yim said that the government will eventually move on to restructure the overcrowded steel and petrochemical sectors by promoting voluntary mergers and acquisitions, and downsizing. 

At the meeting, Yim told officials that the current protraction in the shipbuilding, shipping, steel and petrochemical sectors will not let up anytime soon, pledging to carry out the restructuring plans with a “do-or-die” spirit.

He said that the government will ask Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering to come up with additional layoff plans. Lenders will also force Hyundai Heavy Industries and Samsung Heavy Industries to come up with additional tightening measures.

Yim also pressed ship owners to find common ground with struggling Hanjin Shipping and Hyundai Merchant Marine by mid-May, noting that their freight rates are five to six times higher than international prices. He said if ship owners are unable to reduce the rate for the shippers, lenders will have to file for bankruptcy.

To secure resources needed for the corporate restructuring campaign, Yim said he would work to expand capital for the state-run Korea Development Bank(KDB) and the Export-Import Bank of Korea, while devising employment assistance programs.
Bae Joo-yon, KBS World Radio News.