Strategies to Create Jobs

Rep. Lee calls for deregulation, increased authority to local governments to create jobs

"Create many good jobs in a hurry,"is a theme that every people in the country understands as the top task facing the nation. One out of seven families is not able to make enough income to make both ends meet these days, says Rep. Lee Han-koo of the major opposition Grand National Party in his article in the March issue of the National Assembly Review.
Many parents in the country have been deeply distressed by the fact that their children, who they provided with good education even giving them expensive private tutoring, have not been able to find jobs and hang around their houses doing nothing, the legislator lamented.
The country is loaded with problems including the erosion of the middle class, low birth rate, rapid rise in divorce, and one of the highest suicide rate in the world, which have been providing causes for widening wealth gap, leading to the reduction in future growth potential, closely related to the discrepancy in regional economies, claimed the legislator from Daegu.
The lack of job creation seems to have gotten worse during the Roh administration. The number of job, quality, and stable employment have all grown worse in the past four years.
Business firms want to invest to prepare for their future like the all rusty locomotive standing on its track in the remote town near DMZ, Chulwon, Gangwon Province. The locomotive apparently bombed and destroyed during the Korean War, yet the words written on it still can be read,"the iron horse still likes to run."Rep. Lee said due to the leftist policies of the Roh administration and the ruling Uri Party which want to abuse the national sentiment to its advantage, a huge number of young men have to forego their desire for getting jobs, which indeed is a traumatic situation.
Therefore, he called for daring policies to create jobs because if left alone, the country will be put into a truly dire situation where growth potential will plummet, the collapse of the middle class and the demise of regional economy are expected to happen.
He said what he considers good jobs should be created by the government, not just jobs that would fade like bubbles, but ones that hold future and stable, especially for youths with low educational background, low-income families, women, handicapped and old people.
But these good jobs cannot be created anywhere. They can be created by large business firms in Seoul and its vicinities and the service industries and to help them the government should relax the laws and regulations restricting the use of land in the Seoul area in a daring manner. The move should come along with the government policies that make business environment better.
What is needed is a system for "specialized job creation"which is named,"glocal 21"by the Grand National Party. The idea is to leave the work related to creating jobs to local autonomous organizations so that it may fit with specialized regional development strategies, ensuring creativity and responsibility.
The strategy is aimed at raising the level of infrastructure in local provinces to that of the Seoul area, which is free of regulations and boost the business incentives to attract businesses to local regions to those of incentives for foreign businesses and expand the rights of local authorities such as for labor, environment, land use, and traffic to the levels they deserve.
The government should also give local authorities the right to deregulate the green belt areas in their provinces to diffuse high land prices and set up large industrial complexes with the financial assistance from the central government, the legislator said.
The National Assembly man proposed five basic strategies for early creation of jobs. The first one is making business firms to lead the work to many people to work. It calls for regulations to match those of the advanced countries and the tax burden comparable to those in rival countries.
Second is to leave the work on creating jobs to local authorities, which should expand the number of free economic zones and set up "knowledge economy free zones"in the inland areas such as Daegu and Gwangju to include knowledge based industries and service industries related to education, medicine, and tourism, among others.
Third is the fostering of the service industry such as education, tourism, logistics, legal, accounting and financial services.
Fourth, there should be funds to educate those who can't find jobs easily such as women, low-education, old aged, and handicapped so that they may be able to find job.
Fifth is for the government to deregulate the regulations controlling the Seoul area to those of advanced countries to create jobs. The government is called on to revise various laws and regulations governing the capital area to help business firms in the area to hire more people. nw

GNP Rep. Lee Han-koo.