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South Korea to reassure investors after impeachment
Seoul, Mar 15: South Korea underscored its concern today to keep its economy on track by saying its Finance Minister will travel to New York, London and Hong Kong to reassure investors after Parliament impeached the President.
Seoul, Mar 15: South Korea underscored its concern today to
keep its economy on track by saying its Finance Minister will travel
to New York, London and Hong Kong to reassure investors after
Parliament impeached the President.
More than 50,000 people waving candles protested peacefully
in Seoul yesterday against Roh's impeachment, and police said
another rally was scheduled for 0900 GMT on Sunday, with about
35,000 people expected to attend.
The Opposition-ruled Parliament stunned many and thrust the country into uncertainty last week by impeaching President Roh Moo-Hyun for breaking an election law. The Constitutional court has six months to decide whether to uphold the vote, and Prime Minister Goh Kun is acting president during that time. Goh, a 66-year-old veteran bureaucrat, called for calm and urged military forces facing the communist north to be vigilant. Foreign investors closely watch political stability in South Korea, which already faced a standoff over North Korea's nuclear ambitions and the task of coaxing Asia's fourth-largest economy back to full recovery after a consumer credit bubble burst.
Finance Minister Lee Hun-Jai will visit major finance centres before the end of march for an investor relations trip that was planned before the vote but has taken on added significance since. ''Impeachment was something that we never expected when we had planned an Ir session,'' Choi Joong-Kyung, chief of the finance ministry's international finance bureau, told mediapersons.
''We will express to the investors the ministry will proceed with economic policy regardless of any political situation,'' he said of the trip to New York, Hong Kong and London.
South Korean financial markets reacted sharply to the vote, with stocks and the won falling sharply and investors seeking the safe haven of bonds on Friday. But lee said he expected such volatility to be short lived.
Bureau Report
The Opposition-ruled Parliament stunned many and thrust the country into uncertainty last week by impeaching President Roh Moo-Hyun for breaking an election law. The Constitutional court has six months to decide whether to uphold the vote, and Prime Minister Goh Kun is acting president during that time. Goh, a 66-year-old veteran bureaucrat, called for calm and urged military forces facing the communist north to be vigilant. Foreign investors closely watch political stability in South Korea, which already faced a standoff over North Korea's nuclear ambitions and the task of coaxing Asia's fourth-largest economy back to full recovery after a consumer credit bubble burst.
Finance Minister Lee Hun-Jai will visit major finance centres before the end of march for an investor relations trip that was planned before the vote but has taken on added significance since. ''Impeachment was something that we never expected when we had planned an Ir session,'' Choi Joong-Kyung, chief of the finance ministry's international finance bureau, told mediapersons.
''We will express to the investors the ministry will proceed with economic policy regardless of any political situation,'' he said of the trip to New York, Hong Kong and London.
South Korean financial markets reacted sharply to the vote, with stocks and the won falling sharply and investors seeking the safe haven of bonds on Friday. But lee said he expected such volatility to be short lived.
Bureau Report