The Democratic Party of Korea is pursuing a legal amendment to significantly extend the statute of limitations on unfair trading practices, which is currently 10 years, as part of its pledge for 'advancing the capital market'. It also aims to strengthen the listing and maintenance requirements and to evaluate listed companies based on management performance, speeding up the exit of 'zombie companies'. Following the review process by the party's Central Election Countermeasure Committee, this is expected to be included in the '21st presidential election policy pledge book' next week.
The campaign committee of Democratic Party candidate Lee Jae-myung's 'KOSPI 5000 Era Committee' (hereinafter referred to as the KOSPI Committee) proposed these policies at a press conference on the 16th. The key points are: ▲Specification of the 'duty of loyalty of directors to shareholders' in the Company Act ▲Extension of the current 10-year statute of limitations on unfair trading ▲Ban on employment in financial companies for those involved in unfair trading ▲Reform of the corporate value assessment system based on management performance.
According to comprehensive coverage by ChosunBiz, the campaign committee and the party's policy committee decided to include the amendments to the Company Act, restrictions on the employment of those involved in unfair trading, and the reform of the corporate value evaluation system in the 'policy pledge book'. The pledge book is expected to be published as early as next week after being personally confirmed by candidate Lee. Regarding the 'extension of the statute of limitations', the campaign committee is currently reviewing it in the format of a proposal from the KOSPI Committee. In the National Assembly, there is a bill to extend the statute of limitations to 30 years, which was introduced by Chairperson O Gi-hyeong.
The reform of corporate value evaluation reportedly refers to Japan's 'capital market reform program'. In 2022, Japan reorganized its existing five markets into 'Prime, Standard, and Growth'. Additionally, the listing and maintenance conditions for exchanges were also strengthened. Representative O noted, 'I conducted research based on Japan's restructuring of the five markets into three and suggested it to the campaign committee,' adding, 'However, since it is not good for the government to arbitrarily intervene in the market, we are contemplating appropriate measures.'
The pledge book will also include strategies for encouraging shareholder returns, such as ▲stock buybacks ▲increased dividends. Member of the KOSPI Committee Lee So-young said, 'The principle of burning treasury shares will be explicitly included in the pledge except in exceptional cases,' and emphasized, 'As candidate Lee Jae-myung has also decided to promote a policy of increasing dividends for shareholder returns in economic-related YouTube content, we will pursue pledges that include tax policy.'