Park needs to focus on economy

President Park Geun-hye attends a festival for the opening of Creative Economy Innovation Center at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in Daejeon, Thursday. / Yonhap

Following is the second in a series of articles on President Park Geun-hye's tasks for the second half of her presidency. ― ED.

By Kang Seung-woo

For President Park Geun-hye, Korea’s first female head of state, the first half of her five-year presidency has been less impressive than expected.

Despite unveiling ambitious plans to help the nation take a leap forward, her efforts were often frustrated by unexpected incidents such as the outbreak of Middles East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and the Sewol ferry sinking. Then there were several scandals involving her aides and younger brother, as well as her own personal deficiencies of course, poor communication skills being among them.

Passing the halfway point of her term on Aug. 25, political analysts advised Park to produce tangible results to burnish her legacy and gain strong public support.

“To pursue her main policies, President Park needs to take advantage of public support,” said Yoon Hee-woong, a senior researcher at Opinion Live.

Bae Jong-chan, the chief director at political pollster Research and Research, thinks that her approval rating needs to be more than 40 percent constantly to gain momentum for the administration of state affairs.

According to local pollster Realmeter on Monday, 41 percent of Koreans approve of the way Park is handling the presidency, up 1.1 percentage points from the previous week.

“Although the number is more than 40 percent, it came from conservatives rallying around her following growing inter-Korean tensions,” Bae said.

Last week, tensions between South and North Korea heightened following an exchange of fire across the border.

Park’s economic policy has yet to pay off, dented by uncertainties in global markets and the slowing domestic economy. She is trying to break through the difficulties with government-led creative economy innovation centers and job creation for young adults.

The innovation centers, Park’s flagship policy, are set up in major cities across the country, to nurture startups and venture firms with the assistance of conglomerates.

In addition, Park has pushed for labor market reform to create youth employment.

“How successful those two initiatives prove will evaluate Park’s economic policy in the second half,” Bae said.

In addition, Park has taken flak for backpedalling on her presidential pledge of “economic democratization.”

It aims at resolving the widening gap between conglomerates and small and mid-sized businesses, but after facing protests from the chaebol, the family-run business groups, she has shifted her focus toward growth, which drew backlash from the opposition and the public.

The economic democratization will be at the center of many disputes as the nation gets closer to the general election on April 13, 2016 and Park needs to preemptively deal with the issue, Bae added.

Finally, Bae advises President Park to work hard in personnel management that has proven to be an unmitigated disaster due to a series of poor senior appointments.

“Ahead of the general elections, a slew of Cabinet members will quit to run for parliamentary seats and that means a series of confirmation hearings will take place,” he said.

Among the Cabinet members, Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Yoo Ki-june, Education Minister Hwang Yoo-yea and Gender Equality and Family Minister Kim Hee-jung are expected to run in the general election.

“If her appointments fall through, it will doom her administration,” Bae said.