By Kim Yon-se
Staff Reporter
President-elect Lee Myung-bak pledged to fully support the World Athletics Championships to be hosted by Daegu in 2011.
He made the remarks during a meeting with Lamine Diack, president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), at his office in Seoul Friday.
The IAAF head arrived here earlier this week with a team of officials to check Daegu's preparations for the competition. ``We expect the South Korean government to give full support for successful hosting of the games,'' Diack told Lee.
Diack said they chose Daegu over other candidates because we were moved by the passionate support of the city's citizens. ``We believe that the championships will open up a brand-new chapter for Korean sports.''
Lee said, ``The government and people as well as Daegu citizens will not spare their support for a successful hosting.''
The IAAF selected Daegu last March over Moscow and Brisbane as the host of the 2011 athletics' event.
On a separate occasion earlier in the day, President-elect Lee instructed his transition committee members to closely monitor the financial market, warning of a global credit crisis stemming from the subprime turmoil in the United States.
``We need to strengthen economic fundamentals to protect the financial market from fluctuating due to external negative factors,'' he told his staff.
Senior financial experts from companies such as Woori Bank and SK Economic Research Institute also participated in the meeting as advisors.
``The President-elect advised us to keep an eye on financial firms and take appropriate measures to help them overcome external uncertainties,'' a transition team member said. ``The financial experts also called for more flexible monetary policies to curb inflation risks and to help the country maintain growth momentum at the same time.''
The official said the participants agreed that the financial market has become more sensitive to external variables and this raises the need for more effective and quicker countermeasures from policymakers.