Expansion of Social Safety Net

MOHW pledges to create 210,000 new jobs and increase welfare support
The Ministry of Health and Welfare reported its major policy objectives for this year to President Roh Moo-hyun last month, including the creation of 210,000 new jobs, drawing up measures to cope with low-birth and old-aged society in the future, fostering the health and medical industry as a new growth engine and strengthening the management of obesity and cancer on the level of national concern to guarantee national health.
The ministry? major policy objectives include five major policy objectives and 23 measures to implement them including the plan to close the gap between the rich and poor. The ministry plans to expand the social safety net and create new jobs in its responsibility areas.
The ministry plans to create 210,000 new jobs this year by exploring its areas of responsibility. At least, 13,000 will come from the area of house chores and caring for the elderly and citizens in the low-income brackets and another 13,000 to work in the senior citizen care facilities to be set up around the country this year. The ministry will develop a model for hospitals without caretakers with enough service manpower. The ministry will also create 70,000 businesses for those who want to be own their own in the low-income brackets, including senior citizens. The ministry will also see that some 9,000 new jobs will be provided to the disabled and 80,000 for senior citizens around the country. For these purposes, a task force will be set up in the ministry this year. The ministry also is ready to legislate a law for assisting those want to work by separating the self-help support system from the Fundamental Livelihood Guarantee Law and amend it to be a law to help the extremely poor people to be on their own economically, which will be a base to provide work to create jobs for destitute people.
The ministry will also provide an overall support system to senior male citizens living alone by operating a support center for old men living alone at the city, and county administrations. Those centers will try to improve the living environment for those old citizens living alone without families as part of its business projects to make their lives stable.
The ministry will also strive to make the country ready to cope with sustainable possible future society through a pan-national effort. It will lead a program to come up with a basic plan for low-income and aging society to boost birth rate and improve the quality of living for the aging society jointly with the participation of 12 government ministries as part of its plan to show its vision and strategy to achieve the goal. Core tasks include strengthening social support system to provide education to children at the weakest period; the construction of infrastructure for healthy and stable livelihood for the aged; finding out and expanding business management models that are friendly to old age and families.
The ministry will also seek to strengthen the help for pregnancy, birth, and childcare. The government will provide support to medical tests for women unable to get pregnant and expenses for keeping babies in incubators for some 16,000 women selected around the country. The government will also provide help to some 12,000 low-income household housewives by sending nannies to assist with baby care chores.
The ministry will also reform the retirement pension system to maintain it for as long as it can. It will revise the National Pension Law to stabilize the pension? finance, credit on birth and the expansion in salaries through the reform of the management of the pension fund.
The ministry plans to strengthen its effort to make the health-medicine industry a future growth engine. It will rationalize regulations to spur growth of the industry through the expansion of investment and enhancement of its competitive edge. The ministry also will draw up a road map for the development of the industry, providing for increased investment in drug production facilities, cosmetics, and foodstuff and R&D activities by 2010. It will also extend support to start-up companies in the health-medical industry. nw