South Korea’s corporate watchdog said Thursday it will step up its crackdown on public organizations that undermine fair competition by abusing their market power.

In a policy plan for 2014 submitted to President Park Geun-hye, the Fair Trade Commission said it will look into public enterprises giving business favors and other support to their subsidiaries, a practice that could hurt smaller private-sector competitors.

The FTC will also increase surveillance on any attempts by public organizations to transfer the burden of cost cutting to small and medium-sized companies as they try to reduce their debts under the government-driven public sector reform.

The watchdog said that it will conduct paper-based inquiries during the first half of this year on companies doing business with public enterprises, whose results will be used in launching on-field probes into companies suspected of being involved in irregularities. (Yonhap)