By Lee Min-hyung
President Moon Jae-in called for help from regional governments in creating jobs, Thursday, as the job crisis is weighing on his presidency.
“The central government has so far issued guidance on job creation businesses to local governments, but this top-down approach can only generate limited outcomes,” Moon said during a meeting with mayors and governors at Cheong Wa Dae.
“It is time for us to change the paradigm,” he said. “We need to introduce a bottom-up communication strategy under which each region drives their own job creation policy and the central government evaluates and supports their plans.”
The meeting was arranged in response to the ongoing employment crisis here, with recent data showing that newly created jobs coming in at only 5,000 last month, the lowest since January 2010.
Seventeen leaders from the regional governments discussed how to create more quality jobs and push for growth of local economy.
In particular, President Moon adopted what is called “the declaration of job creation” during the meeting. This outlines enhancing partnerships between central and regional governments to create more jobs.
The declaration included pledges in seven categories. They include regional growth and support on self-employed business owners.
Aside from the leaders from the regional governments, a group of 40 ranking officials participated in the meeting. They include Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon and Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon.
Cheong Wa Dae expressed strong willingness to tackle the ongoing employment crisis by creating more jobs across the nation.
“The job creation tops the list of the state affairs,” the presidential house said in a statement. “We are going to create tangible outcomes on the issue.”
The meeting marked the first time since this February that the President has met with mayors and governors here.