Job Creation Set as Top Prority
By Michael Ha
Staff Reporter
President Lee Myung-bak promised an all-out effort by his administration to bring the economic crisis under control in a New Year speech Friday, in which he outlined a four-point plan to put the Korean economy back on track.
He faces a daunting task, however, in revitalizing an export-dependent economy stuck in a global downturn, a fact that he acknowledged in his speech. A new government report released Friday showed that in 2008, Korea posted its first trade deficit in more than a decade, highlighting the challenges Lee faces in boosting the sagging economy.
The best-case scenario, Lee noted, would see the economy start rebounding in the second-half of 2009.
``How fast we will be able to overcome the crisis hinges partly on our own actions but more importantly on what actions countries around the world take,'' he told the nation during the televised speech. ``All countries must work together through close international coordination to provide sufficient currency liquidity, expand their fiscal outlays and decisively implement restructuring.''
First, Lee said, ``The government will go all out to ride out the economic crisis by setting the administration on an emergency economy rescue mode. The government will continue to carry out an administrative overhaul befitting such arduous efforts.''
Lee said his administration was taking extraordinary steps to inject more capital into the markets and extend credit to struggling businesses and households. ``More than anything else,'' he said, ``Money should be funneled into the markets. The government has already infused more than 20 trillion won into banks, and it will continue to take all available measures to facilitate borrowing from banks by businesses and households.''
He said the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund and the Kibo Technology Fund, the nation's two guarantee organizations, ``will raise capital to expand support for small- and medium-sized enterprises. In particular, a new system will be put in place to exempt officials from taking responsibility for regulatory problems that might arise in the process of providing active support to these companies.''
His administration will carry out stimulus packages without delay, Lee said. ``More than 60 percent of the budget designed to boost domestic demand will be disbursed in the first half of this year,'' he said, ``And we will make sure that the action will benefit local economies and small businesses first and foremost.''
The President also promised to focus on creating and maintaining jobs in the troubled economy. ``Nothing is more important than the creation of jobs in steering the economy in the New Year,'' he said, adding that his administration will provide incentives to small businesses to keep their current employees. ``For instance, a factory in Cheongju allowed its workers to take temporary leave instead of laying them off. For this kind of company, we will provide subsidies of up to three quarters of those workers' wages.''
Lee noted that as part of an effort to ease the job market for recent college graduates, ``government ministries and agencies created 70,000 internships for them. This program is expected to give young people experience that will greatly help them to find better jobs in the future."
He also mentioned occupational training programs that will be introduced in 2009, including the global youth leaders program and the Work, English Study and Travel Program (WEST) that allows them to work and learn in the United States for 18 months.
Lee also promised to carry out further government reforms, boosting competitiveness and rooting out corruption. ``My administration will continue to push for deregulation, advancement of state-invested enterprises and educational reforms.''
``The National Agricultural Cooperative Federation will be returned to the farmers, and the National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives will be returned to the fishermen,'' Lee said. ``This kind of reform will have to be made on an ongoing basis.''