By Yi Whan-woo
The ruling Saenuri Party announced Thursday a package of election pledges, including revising the Bank of Korea (BOK) Law to enable the party to demand it introduce quantitative easing (QE) after the April 13 general election.
The announcement came after its campaign co-chief Kang Bong-kyun called for the need to adopt a more aggressive monetary easing policy to spur the economy.
Revising the law was among 53 policy proposals made by the party’s candidates for proportional representation seats.
The party’s move to review the central bank law is intended to set legal grounds for the bank to print more money to support economic growth.
The revised law will push the BOK to supply more liquidity in the market by buying bonds issued by state-run banks.
Kang, a former finance minister, said March 29 that the central bank should buy commercial banks’ mortgage-backed securities and bonds issued by the state-run Korea Development Bank.
“The revision of the BOK Act is necessary to implement a Korean version of QE,” said Kim Jong-seok, a senior official of the Saenuri Party’s election camp. “Our plan is expected to push the BOK to come up with more active monetary policies.”
Kim, who also serves as the president of the Yeouido Institute, the party’s think tank, rejected concerns that the revision will violate the central bank’s independent decision-making process.
“We’re trying to add a special role for the BOK,” he added.
The Saenuri Party said it will propose the revision within 100 days after the new National Assembly begins its four-year term on May 30.
The party’s announcement came amid concerns over a series of sugarcoated promises in campaign pledges.
The parties and their candidates are making promises that they claim will help boost the sluggish economy, but are seen as populist by critics.
They include the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea (MPK) interim leader Kim Chong-in’s pledge made Wednesday to draw investments worth 3 trillion won ($2.6 billion) from Samsung Electronics to Gwangju to create 20,000 jobs there.
Samsung Electronics said it has “no plan” concerning this. Kim is also a proportional representation candidate.
Some candidates have promised to carry out mega-sized transportation infrastructure projects that require funds from the central government; and also have brought up defunct plans proposed during the 2012 general election and 2014 local elections.
Others are stealing ideas from rival candidates in their respective constituencies, although skepticism is rampant that their promises will never be kept.
“The parties should keep in mind that these are National Assembly elections and their candidates should not make promises as if they were administrative officials of the central government,” said Lee Gwang-jae, the secretary general of the Korea Manifesto Center.
The Saenuri Party, MPK and the minor People’s Party and Justice Party have each outlined 10 pledges, respectively, at a broader level.
These deal with a wide range of issues, including nurturing prospective industries, welfare benefits, job creation for young adults and education.
A number of candidates in previous elections made their promises based on such pledges at a party level, according to the National Election Commission (NEC).
“The problem is, the voters tend to disregard what the pledges are and cast ballots based on their affinity with the parties,” said Shin Yul, a political science professor at Myongji University.