The South Korean finance minister called for fundamental reform in the financial industry in order to make the sector drive the country's economic development, according to the ministry on Saturday.

“This is the time for financial reform that transforms the basis of South Korea's financial industry,” Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan said in a meeting with Lord Mayor Allen Yarrow of City of London on Friday (local time). “The British economy has made a second take-off after carrying out the Big Bang reform initiative and improving competitiveness in the financial industry.”

Under the Big Bang program in the 1980s, the London government lifted a set of financial regulations, including the abolition of fixed commission charges and removal of barriers among the banking, brokerage and insurance sectors.

Yarrow said it is important for financial companies to adopt a performance-based pay system to keep up with the fast-changing world financial market, adding that flexible labor exchange in the British financial industry had contributed to London's emergence as a global financial center.

Choi, who has been on a three-day tour to France and Britain, has stressed that financial and labor reform in South Korea will boost growth momentum in Asia's fourth-largest economy. He has voiced support for reforms especially in labor and education to address youth employment issues. (Yonhap)