Elementary and Middle School Exempt from Korea-US FTA
The Korean government said yesterday it would prudently approach the issues of opening public service sectors, such as electric, water, and gas services and institutional services. It would also exclude the opening of the educational service market, such as elementary and middle schools, except for post-high school educational sectors from Korea-US FTA negotiations.
The government also determined to have more chances of holding public hearings ahead of stepping into the FTA discussions, and to disclose the negotiated contents of the second FTA discussion in July. The Ministry of Finance and Economy with other ministries clarified that the government won’t yield what Seoul should protect and hurry in negotiating FTA due to Trade Promotion Authority.
Through its briefing, the government also clarified that the government will synthetically review the traits, importance to national economy, international precedent, and the necessity of liberalization in the process of negotiating the issues of opening electricity, gas service, and waterworks by optimally not breaking publicity. A government official said, “The current view of the Korean governmental is that it would be difficult to open these public service sectors.”
Regarding the claim that the government intends to modify foreigners’ stock holdings in domestic telecommunications, he replied that it would be hard to open those sectors for foreign investors since if a foreign stockholder becomes a large shareholder there can be a security problem in only pursuing short-term profits and harming the domestic telecommunications sector.
The government also clarified that it will discuss the range of opening educational services, excluding the elementary and middle school sectors. In conjunction with the education sector, the official said, “It is necessary to enhance the competence of domestic universities relatively lower in competition by opening the sector.”
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 / 입력시간: 2006. 04.25. 08:47
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