By Kwak Yeon-soo
In Korea, the policymaking process is often conducted under a veil of secrecy. Only bureaucrats, lawmakers and a limited number of other stakeholders take part in shaping government policies and legislation, leaving most businesses and individuals in the dark.
In particular, multinational companies, many of which have been struggling to deal with the country's antitrust regulations, taxation, labor policies and environmental rules, have a higher tendency of being excluded from the policymaking process.
Although public relations agencies and law firms have staff who conduct public policy matters for them, there are only a few organizations that can offer advice on how to convey their opinions to policymakers.
To meet increasing demand from multinational businesses here for effective government relations consulting, GR Korea ― a specialist consultancy focusing on public affairs ― opened an office in February this year to bridge the gap between the two sides, according to its head.
GR Korea Country Manager Kim Young-jin said GR Group, which has offices in Washington D.C., London, Tokyo and Osaka, decided to open a new regional office in Seoul due to growing demand from international clients that also operate here.
| GR Korea Country Head Kim Young-jin poses after an interview with The Korea Times at GR Korea in Samseong-dong, Seoul, Nov. 5. / Courtesy of GR Korea |
GR Group was founded in 2010 by the former policy director of the European Business Council and a former British diplomat with the aim of standing on the frontlines of the public policy consulting industry.
Its staff includes former parliamentarians, diplomats, academics, business executives and members of civic groups as well as experts in business sectors such as healthcare, energy, consumer goods, the environment and ICT, according to the company.
"GR Korea is comprised of eight public policy specialists who have concrete understanding of policy processes, political communication and international policy practices," Kim said. "We highly value integrity and compliance, too."
He said the company's main goal is to enhance the quality of dialogue between the public sector and other stakeholders.
"We want to bring the highest professional and ethical standards to the practice of public affairs in Korea and to ensure that dialogue between the government and other stakeholders is rooted in consideration of the broad public interest," he said.
Transparent approach toward policymaking
On how a public policy consultancy differs from a lobbying organization, the country manager emphasized its "transparent approach."
"Lobbyists usually work behind the scenes to influence public interest groups, but we do it transparently, complying with a code of ethics," he said. "We believe old-fashioned lobbying practices need to be phased out."
Kim added a society needs a good government, which requires high-quality dialogue based on solid research, data and objective evidence, and on a solid understanding of policy as well as the political, business and social landscape.
According to Kim, public relations firms, business consulting firms and even law firms have certain members who take charge of public policy, but provide related information only as supplementary services for their clients.
"Public policy consulting is much more complex than it sounds. Our primary tasks are to discover who the key stakeholders are in each of the processes and convey effective messages to government officials accordingly," he said.
Kim said he takes pride in his staff's vast knowledge and experience in politics and government.
"Our direct experience in politically advanced countries like the U.S., U.K., and Japan allows us to be equipped with insights on the latest global policy trends," Kim said.
He added that GR Korea often shares global clients with other foreign offices and therefore has an active inter-office communication as they work together on projects, sharing different perspectives.
"An increasing number of clients in the shared economy sector are seeking professional public policy consulting," he said.
"New technology companies face regulatory barriers due to the positive regulatory system in Korea. We work with them to shape the supportive regulatory landscape for their innovative businesses."
Kim shared a project GR Korea conducted with a multinational company in a highly regulated industry.
"A policy which would severely undermine their key interests was about to be implemented without sufficient reflection of industry players' opinion," he said, without revealing the name of the company due to confidentiality reasons.
"In a limited time frame, we were successful in identifying key stakeholders and provided persuasive rationale, which resulted in a policy revision."
Although a large proportion of GR Korea's clients are GR Group's global clients operating offices in Korea, Kim said the number of clients is increasing.
"The key to success is a seamless strategy alignment of the headquarters and GR Korea," he said. "Although issues vary in each sector, the approaches we make are pretty much identical. Our goal is to grow public policy into an independent sector of industry."
Prior to joining GR Korea, Kim was in charge of corporate relations at Diageo Korea. Before that, he was a corporate culture manager at Hyundai Engineering & Construction after working as a journalist.