Industries pledge to maintain investment despite virus outbreak

South Korea’s major business groups pledged Thursday to cooperate with the government to minimize the negative impact of the spread of Middle East respiratory syndrome on industrial activity amid growing concerns over a downswing in consumer and investor sentiment.

The five major business lobby groups, including the Federation of Korean Industries, the Korea Chamber of Commerce & Industry and the Korea International Trade Association, said they would “handle the impact of the MERS outbreak undauntedly and continue business operations as usual,” holding routine meetings and events as scheduled and inspecting hygiene and safety guidelines.

“There will be no change to the investment plans that we set up earlier this year and we will put utmost effort to create jobs through initiating new businesses and reviving exports by making inroads in overseas markets,” the five associations said in a joint statement.

Their pledge was made as growing fears of the MERS pandemic threatens to dampen recent improvements in consumer sentiment in the economy. The MERS outbreak has killed nine South Koreans and put more than 3,800 in quarantine since last month.

Earlier in the day, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Strategy and Finance Joo Hyung-hwan urged the five business lobbies to cooperate with the government’s MERS countermeasure-related efforts while having a meeting with the associations’ vice presidents.

“It can be a blow to the economy if service industries continue to stagnate or freeze consumer sentiment in the aftermath of MERS,” Joo said.

On the same day, Bank of Korea Gov. Lee Ju-yeol said slowing exports and threats to business from MERS were central to the decision to cut the benchmark rate by a quarter percentage point, to a fresh record low of 1.5 percent per annum.

By Park Han-na (hnpark@heraldcorp.com)