South Korea’s government and business are over-close
A court case reveals just how cosy
Lee kun-hee embarked on a world tour in 1993 to take stock of Samsung, the firm he inherited from his father. Finding its televisions and other electronics languishing on shelves, he decided to remake Samsung’s image. “Change everything but your wife and your children,” he told employees. One thing that didn’t change, according to a ruling by the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (icsid), is the close relationship between such chaebol, family-run conglomerates that form the backbone of South Korea’s economy, and the government.
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This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “Too close for comfort”
Business July 1st 2023
- Our early-adopters index examines how corporate America is deploying AI
- Why Asia’s super-app companies are stuck in a rut
- South Korea’s government and business are over-close
- The potential and the plight of the middle manager
- Indiana Jones and the fedora boom
- Siemens’s wind-turbine business is blown off course
- Meet the world’s most flirtatious sovereign-wealth fund
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