San-eun Ji-won 'New Growth Companies', 1 in 4 Have 'Fair Trade Commission Sanction' History

Among 257 Companies Receiving 'KDB New Growth 4.0 Support Funds,' 63 Penalized by Fair Trade Commission
Most Common Violation: 'Unfair Subcontracting Practices'... Some Companies Caught 16 Times
Assemblyman Yoodongsoo: "Blind Spots in Management... Considering Adding Mandatory Requirements to Support Programs"

On the 10th, a creditors' meeting of Taeyoung Construction was held at the headquarters of the Korea Development Bank in Yeouido, Seoul. Photo by Younghan Heo younghan@

According to data, one-quarter of the companies supported by the state-run Korea Development Bank (KDB) under the 'New Growth 4.0 Strategy' have a history of sanctions from the Fair Trade Commission (FTC). Since last year, the government has been implementing the 'New Growth 4.0 Strategy' aiming to achieve a national income of $50,000 and become a top-tier country. Starting this year, KDB introduced the 'KDB New Growth 4.0 Support Fund' loan product targeting innovative product companies.

On the 21st, Representative Yoo Dong-su of the Democratic Party, a member of the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee, revealed based on data submitted by the FTC and KDB that among the 257 companies receiving support from KDB's 'New Growth 4.0 Support Fund,' 63 companies were sanctioned by the FTC within the past five years.

By type of violation, the most common was 'unfair subcontracting practices' (61 cases), such as non-payment to subcontractors or failure to issue contracts. This was followed by 38 cases of 'unfair joint acts' such as bid rigging, 7 cases of unfair support acts, 4 cases of violations of the Franchise Business Act, and 3 cases of unfair advertising practices.

KDB only uses the FTC's designation of 'habitual violators of subcontracting transactions' as a reference indicator under the 'ethical management' category and excludes other FTC-related laws such as the Fair Trade Act and the Act on Labeling and Advertising from evaluation criteria. As a result, companies repeatedly violating FTC-related laws among participating companies are still receiving support from KDB, according to Representative Yoo.

Among the 63 companies sanctioned by the FTC, 30 companies repeatedly violated FTC sanctions from as few as twice to as many as 16 times. Specifically, 14 companies were caught twice, 9 companies three times, 4 companies four times, 1 company five times, 1 company seven times, and 1 company sixteen times.

Representative Yoo Dong-su stated, "Some unfair businesses are growing in size by receiving support from financial public institutions such as KDB without special sanctions, operating in blind spots of FTC management." He added, "This is not only a problem with KDB but an issue occurring across financial public institutions." He further suggested, "It is necessary to consider adding a 'Certificate of Legal Violation Confirmation' verifying violations of FTC-related laws as a mandatory requirement for corporate support programs in financial public institutions."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.