[EDITORIALS]Repeating Samsung’s success

There are two kinds of articles being written about Korea in foreign newspapers these days. One is about the amazing achievements of Samsung Electronics, and the other is about Our Open Party’s victory in the general election.
The stunning progress of Samsung Electronics has the rest of the electronics industry nervous. First-quarter profits for Samsung Electronics were 3.1 trillion won ($2.6 billion), nearly three times those of a year ago. The total market value of Samsung Electronics is already twice that of Japan’s Sony and has bypassed that of Finland’s Nokia, the biggest mobile phone producer in the world. Samsung has become the biggest technology firm outside the United States.
Samsung’s success shows us the way our economy should go. We need to create a second Samsung, and a third. When more businesses like it are created, there will be more wealth and more jobs. To create such firms, we need to turn this country into one that encourages the creativity of enterpreneurs, and provides them with a comfortable atmosphere in which to do business. A survey by the Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry indicates that businessmen think the first agenda item the newly elected National Assembly needs to attend to is deregulation.
However, foreign news coverage expressing concern over the Democratic Labor Party’s entry into the National Assembly, and the leftist tendency of some lawmakers in Our Open Party, demands countermeasures. Foreign investors’ concerns about policy changes could burden our economy. It was timely for Han Duck-soo, minister of government policy coordination, to confirm that there will be no changes in government policies towards the left, and for Lee Hun-jai, the deputy prime minister for economics, to reaffirm that the first priority in economic policy is “growth and creating new jobs.” Our Open Party should affirm its belief in the principles of the market economy, based on global standards, to alleviate these concerns.
What is most important right now is transcending the discrepancies between right and left to create the second, and third, Samsung Electronics. The government and the political community should keep in mind that their biggest task is to increase national wealth.