President Roh Puts Economic Turnaround on His Agenda
- Political, business circles greet the president's statement

Going into the third year of his five-year term, President Roh said his government would do its utmost to help the national economy turn around out of a protracted recession by channeling large amounts of government budgets in the first half of the year in order to stimulate the sluggish domestic demand.
The political and business circles welcomed President Roh's pledge to concentrate on revitalizing the sagging national economy, made during his New Year's news conference on Jan. 13.
Roh forecast that the national economy would pick up starting in the second half of the year with a projected boost of domestic consumption and investments.
"Initially, the government plans to disburse a large part of its budget in the first half of the year in an effort to boost investments and domestic consumption. At an early date, the government will start implementing a comprehensive set of investment plans aimed at attracting a large amount of private funds into public investment projects." "When these plans are carried out, it will help the economy escape from its current slump in terms of investment and consumption and finally regain vitality in the second half of the year," President Roh said.
He said he would make efforts to solve a structural problem of polarization among businesses and industries and promote the growth potential of knowledge-based service industries on a long-term perspective. Roh emphasized the significance of attaining simultaneous growth of the polarized sectors.
"In spite of various government efforts, the gaps have been widening further over the past ten years. If the polarization should continue further, the growth potential and foundation for social unity would be undermined seriously and the income gap widened further." "To help ease the polarization, we need to pursue simultaneous growth in all sectors." "The government has to take measures to allow small and medium-size companies and other sectors to catch up in the area of technology and innovation and talent management. It also has to help reduce the income gap among workers by improving their professional capabilities. Employment and growth should go together," the president said.
As part of it efforts to give top priority on supporting SMEs and to tackle the polarization issue, the president pledged to foster 30,000 technology-intensive and innovative SMEs, based on their technology, departing from a policy of simply protecting them. He came up with measures for low-income people, including ways to relieve credit delinquencies, extend long-term loans for school expenses, and create 400,000 new jobs.
"More than anything, the government will focus on nurturing 30,000 small businesses and industries that are heavily devoted to technology innovation so that they will serve as an engine pulling the growth of other smaller industries as well as benefiting their owners and managers." "The government will put a system in place so that start-ups and transition to other types of business will be made swiftly and efficiently," he said.
"The parts industry constitutes a core element in promoting the simultaneous growth of big businesses and smaller businesses. In this light, the government will create a government-wide system for the development of core and fundamental technologies and strengthen cooperative ties with big businesses, the end-users of the products produced by smaller industries," he said.
President Roh stressed that the nation should make 2005 the starting year for a national bid to develop Korea into an advanced country. He painted rosy prospects for the future of the nation, saying that the national per capita income would reach $20,000 around 2008, and become an advanced nation in terms of various indexes in 2020.
"Now, it is time for us to talk about an advanced economy. The time has come to set a clear goal and make endeavors in pursuit of an advanced Korea." "After the age of light industry, we secured international competitiveness in automobiles, shipbuilding, steel, petrochemicals and other heavy industrial sectors. Many sectors of information and communications and the electronic industries are eliciting envy from advanced countries. Only we ourselves seem to be unaware that we have come close to the doorstep of the advanced countries." "Given this trend, a per capita income of $20,000 will be achieved around 2008, and we will be entering into an advanced economy measured by various indexes by 2010 or even earlier," he said.
"To this end, we should be ready to start now. To begin with, knowledge industries, including finance, accounting, legal services, design, consulting and R&D should be extensively nurtured." "In the future, the policy to nurture the knowledge industry should be aggressively implemented in a bid to shore up business competitiveness and enhance the structure of industry."
"During my term, I will help lay a solid foundation for an advanced economy by nurturing the service industry and actively implementing to become an open trading nation," he said.
"The elimination of corruption represents a hurdle Korea must surmount in its march toward becoming an advanced country." "In order to root it out, the system must reformed and all citizens must participate actively. Civic vigilance will serve as the strong driving force to eliminate corruption," he said.
Reacting to President Roh's statement, the ruling Uri Party wholeheartedly greeted it, saying that the president's commitment to economic recovery was a positive step.
The opposition Grand National Party also reacted favorably, saying that the president's changing his focus to the economy is welcome. "We expect that the president will accept every suggestion while seeking to solicit cooperation from the opposition party to enable people to lead a better and more comfortable life", GNP spokesperson Chun Yeo-ok said.
Economic bodies, including the Federation of Korean Industries, and the Korea Chamber of Commerce, also greeted he president's statement and showed a willingness to join forces in his bid to turn around the economy. They said that the president's policy of creating a business-friendly environment would serve as a catalyst for encouraging all economic forces nw