Political parties have called for populist bailout plans for GM Daewoo to win voters in the Bupyeong district of Incheon, where GM Daewoo’s main manufacturing plant is located.
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The US parent company’s uncertain future has put the Incheon plant, its 11,000 workers’ job security and the local economy under a cloud, the Korea Herald said.
Economists have calculated that GM Daewoo’s business activities account for about 20% of the city’s economy.
According to the paper, the governing Grand National Party (GNP) and the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) are hurrying to announce supportive measures to help workers and their families.
GNP chairman Park Hee-tae has vowed to bailout the Bupyeong plant, saying his party would certainly save the local business – once part of the giant Daewoo shipbuilding-to-consumer electronics group – no matter what the fate of General Motors in the United States.
“We will work closely together with the government to keep the business alive,” Park said, asking voters to support his local GNP candidate.
Lee, a former deputy minister of finance and economy, had said earlier that he would work closely with GNP leaders and policy makers to encourage banks to lend money to the troubled automaker.
DP candidate Hong Young-pyo started his career with Daewoo as a production line worker back in 1982 and later took a high-ranking government post handling domestic industries at a free trade agreement division of the finance and economy ministry, the Korea Herald noted.
To support his campaign, the DP has called for setting aside 650bn won to bail out GM Daewoo and its parts producing affiliates.
It urged GNP lawmakers to be cooperative in putting the money into an extra budget plan. Parliamentary deliberations on the proposal are under way, the paper said.
A member of the DP’s decision-making Supreme Council yesterday submitted a bill aimed at helping Korean automakers including GM Daewoo.
Under the proposed scheme, small car owners would be offered tax cuts and refunds.
