President Lee Jae-myung said Wednesday that competition among asset managers running the citizen-participation National Growth Fund must be intensified to improve its performance.
Lee made the remarks after receiving a briefing from Financial Services Commission (FSC) Chairman Lee Eok-won during a Cabinet meeting and emergency economic review meeting held at the former presidential office in Cheong Wa Dae. "Korea's economic structure is likely to shift toward an asset-centered one going forward," Lee said. "The income gap is a problem, but the wealth gap is a bigger problem and will worsen further."
"How to narrow the gap in the asset sector is an important task," he said. "In the stock market, those holding large blue-chip stocks have seen their assets rise 10-fold or 20-fold, while those without stocks are excluded. The gap widens sharply depending on whether one owns equity assets." Lee also noted that "the National Growth Fund sold out despite priority allocation to ordinary citizens," adding that "management must be handled well."
He then asked, "For example, are there specific ways to strengthen or boost returns — guaranteeing them might be going too far, but anyway?" When Chairman Lee responded that "the most important thing is ultimately to manage the funds well," President Lee said, "We need to firmly promote competition (in management), through measures such as disclosing returns frequently to apply pressure."
"Messages have come to my social media accounts from people asking why they had no chance to subscribe," Lee added. "It seems some who felt alienated from the stock market are looking to find opportunities here. I hope this will contribute to easing the wealth gap, even slightly, or at least slowing its widening."
