Finance ministry launches corporate vitality task force, vows EV support measures

South Korea's finance ministry launched a working-level task force on corporate vitality Thursday, pledging tax, financial and regulatory support to lift business activity and promising measures this month to bolster the electric vehicle industry.

The Ministry of Economy and Finance said the task force, chaired by First Vice Minister Kwon Dae-young, held its first meeting at the Korea Development Bank. It will serve as a working group supporting a public-private consultative body on corporate innovation that was set up in March under the deputy prime minister.

"We will actively push forward government support, tax measures, financing and regulatory rationalization to create the world's best business environment and raise corporate vitality, so that talent, technology and capital from around the world gather in an irreplaceable Korea," Kwon said. He added that large and small companies, advanced and traditional industries, and the capital region and the provinces must grow together.

The meeting brought together the country's six major business associations, including the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Korea Enterprises Federation and the Korea Employers Federation, along with the Korea Development Bank's Industrial Technology Research Center, the Industrial Bank of Korea's Economic Research Institute, Samsung Global Research, the Korea Automobile and Mobility Industry Association, LG Management Research Institute, the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade and the Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements.

Participants pointed to growing "K-shaped polarization" across companies, industries and regions, and warned that the shift to artificial intelligence could widen the productivity gap further, calling for an active policy response.

The ministry said the global industry spanning finished vehicles, materials, parts and equipment is being reorganized rapidly around electric vehicles and autonomous driving. The business groups asked the government to add EVs to the scope of the domestic production tax credit and to expand support for parts makers converting to EV production.

Kwon said the government would listen to a wide range of views and reflect them in a plan to strengthen the EV industry's competitiveness, to be announced later this month. "Our companies' rapid change and technological innovation are more important than ever," he said.

He also said the government would move to resolve on-site regulatory difficulties immediately. "We will work with the private sector to climb the high mountains, and small regulations and difficulties like stones in a shoe will be found and resolved on the spot," Kwon said.