The Centers for Creative Economy & Innovation (CCEI) -- one of the major yardsticks by which the Park Geun-hye government’s performance can be assessed -- have turned out to be a big disappointment.
In July 2014, the Park Geun-hye government, intent on moving forward with the creative economy initiative, set up 17 CCEIs nationwide in cooperation with major conglomerates, including Samsung, Hyundai Motor, SK, LG, Hyundai Heavy Industries, POSCO, CJ, Lotte, Hanwha, Hanjin, KT, the nation’s two largest Internet giants (Naver and Daum Kakao) and even cosmetics company Amore Pacific.
The goal of the CCEIs is to create jobs by matching up these conglomerates’ technologies and knowhow with specific regions, nurturing start-ups and promoting exports.
President Park Geun-hye graced with her presence the opening ceremonies for most of the CCEIs and exhibited a great interest in the CCEIs. However, the annual parliamentary audit of government offices has revealed that the CCEIs are far from measuring up to the government’s expectations. Five of the CCEIs were remodeled after the opening ceremonies attended by President Park.
Structural changes had been made temporarily to the CCEIs just in the run-up to the high-profile opening ceremonies. All the hoo-ha about the opening of CCEIs, many say, was just window dressing.
Five (30 percent) of the 17 CCEIs went through some remodeling after the opening ceremonies or 3 months after CCEI chiefs took office. A budget of 659 million won was ploughed into the remodeling works.
Some CCEIs invited President Park to their opening ceremony even though they were chiefless. The opening ceremony for the Jeonbuk CCEI was held on November 24, 2014, but its chief position was filled three month later on February 24, 2015.
The opening ceremony for the Gyeonggi CCEI was held on March 30, 2014 and its chief took office on April 1. “These centers had themselves remodeled after President Park’s visit. They just made a mockery of the government’s core policy. They deceived both the president and the public,” criticized Rep. Jun Byung-hun of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD).
Seven out of every 10 employees of the CCEIs are non-regular workers. Eighty-four (67.2 percent) of the 125 employees are on employment contracts with a maximum term of 2 years.
Under such unfavorable working conditions, CCEI employees, many argue, can neither commit themselves to what they are tasked with nor support startups properly. An industry insider said, “They are in the vanguard of the creative economy initiative. Providing them with job security is an urgent task.”
Their management of center occupants isn’t in good shape, either. Two companies that moved into the Gwangju CCEI have turned out to be Seoul-based and Ansan-based businesses.
“Some of the center occupants relocate to another CCEI by changing their business contents every 6 months. CCEIs are nothing but local suppliers of office spaces to some occupants,” said Rep. Woo Sang-ho of the NPAD
Eight of the CCEIs spent no investment funds whatsoever. Less than half of the fundraising targets have been met and a meager 10% of the funds raised were invested.
Of the current funds raised (worth 357.5 billion), only 35.93 billion won was invested. Such tepid investment activities mean that though the CCEIs have deep pockets, they got no place to pump the money into. In other words, they have yet to discover competent business incubators.
“The government has set up the CCEIs nationwide somewhat for show. President Park had better give up her desire to bring tangible results within her tenure and let businesses autonomously do the job of commercializing creative ideas,” many in financial and industrial circles say.
