SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA - SOUTH Korean President Lee Myung-Bak vowed on Thursday to sacrifice his personal popularity for economic reform and take a 'life or death' attitude in fighting the global crisis.

He asked the ruling Grand National Party to work harder for parliamentary approval of bills aimed at eliminating administrative and regulatory obstacles to domestic and foreign investors.

'I will push ahead with reform policies, instead of populist policies,' he was quoted by his spokesman as telling party leaders.

'A decade ago, we failed to legislate labour and financial reform bills, incurring the distrust of foreign investors.' Mr Lee also said he would take a 'life or death' attitude in fighting the crisis and enforcing policies to improve economic fundamentals.

'I and all civil servants have to seriously cope with the national crisis. As Confucius said, we all have to be ready to sacrifice ourselves in the face of a national crisis,' he said.

The government has announced a series of steps - including raising budget spending by 11 trillion won (S$12.8 billion dollars) and tax cuts totalling three trillion won - to boost the sluggish domestic economy as export growth slows.

The leading Samsung Economic Research Institute also urged it to speed up restructuring of vulnerable sectors such as the property market.

Despite government moves to inject liquidity, private banks are reluctant to extend loans especially to smaller firms, senior Samsung researcher Kwon Soon-Woo told reporters.

Mr Kwon said Asia's fourth largest economy faces a rocky ride next year, although global financial woes are expected to moderate.

Samsung forecast the economy would grow 3.2 per cent next year, higher than the International Monetary Fund's prediction of 2.0 percent and 2.7 per cent forecast by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The government's official 2009 growth forecast is four per cent.

Sluggish exports will cause investments to shrink while fears of layoffs and weak job creation will suppress domestic demand, the Samsung institute said.

The current account is expected to post a full-year surplus of about two billion dollars in 2009 compared to an estimated US$9.4 billion (S$14.2 billion) deficit this year, Mr Kwon said.

Export growth will slow down but import growth will plunge more to produce a turnaround in the trade balance, he said.

He saw Thursday's announcement of a record current account surplus of US$4.9 billion in October as 'encouraging signs.' But businessmen remain bearish.

Business confidence for December plunged to its lowest level since April 1998 on fears of a global recession and stubbornly weak domestic demand, the Federation of Korean Industries said in a survey of 600 large companies.