Yoon Predicts 5 Pct GDP Growth

Aid to SMEs and low-income families is the priority in government policies this year

Minister Yoon Jeung-hyun of the Ministry of Strategy and Finance forecast that Korea would not have trouble in attaining GDP growth of 5 percent this year, following 0.2 percent growth last year marred by the financial crisis sweeping the world.
The minister, who completed his first year on the job on Feb. 9, appears to have accomplished a lot during his initial year in the cabinet post, reports said. The KOSPI index advanced to 1570 as of Feb. 9 from 1162 when he first took over as MOSF minister, while the won’s exchange rate versus the U.S. dollar stabilized at an average of 1,165 won per dollar.
Reports said he should be given solid credit for steering and keeping economic growth into positive territory, however small the rate may be, by effectively employing stimulus packages. He also had a hand in winning the right to host the G-20 Summit in Seoul in November, which is expected to boost Korea’s image as an economically important country in the world. Yoon still has many problems ahead of him to solve. MOSF officials said the ministry has to maintain macro expansionary economic measures for the time being to boost the nation’s capacity to fight off any crisis.
The ministry has to expand the domestic economy while stabilizing the high debt levels of both private and corporate loans in order to remove various problems that may hurt the economy, they said.
Yoon said the government will release 93.8 trillion won in funds to perk up SMEs’ operations this year including 23 trillion won to help them increase facility investments. This amount falls short of last year’s by 5 trillion won, but is still far above the figure in 2008.
The key objective of the government’s economic policy will be the creation of jobs. One of the measures is to persuade businesses to reduce the salaries for newly hired college graduates to a level of between 20 million won and 30 million won this year under the government’s job sharing plan. The government will also provide momentum to the corporate community to increase employment of new employees, the minister said. The government will secure funds to support low-income families in the areas of welfare, especially medical expenses, through means of additional budget. It will also stabilize the prices of daily necessities with special emphasis on those consumer items that low-income families usually need.
The government will continuously stick to its policies announced in the second half of last year to make efforts to improve the livelihood of poor families, financially struggling business owners and women this year.
The government will also try to redouble its cooperation through the G-20 Summit as the chair country of the key international organization focusing on the creation of a new international economic discipline in the area of taking joint exit policies in the wake of the global economic crisis that began in late 2008.
Minister Yoon said the government will try to upgrade Korea’s brand image around the world with the catchphrase of “economic development with Korea,” especially aimed at emerging economies in such regions as Africa and Central and South America.
For the G-20 Summit, the government will push for a meeting of finance ministers of G-20 member countries in October this year just prior to the G-20 Summit to draw up a detailed plan to overcome the world economic crisis and a joint exit plan, if needed, to the extent that Korea would put itself in a leading-nation position in the discussion of international finance and economy.
Yoon also said the government plans to secure firm financial resources by strengthening its ties with such global financial institutions as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank (WB) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
Minister Yoon also revealed the MOSF’s plan to hold an international job fair for the first time in the country to help Korean college graduates advance overseas for jobs with international organizations including the United Nations and financial organizations such as the IMF, the WB and the ADB, among others. nw

Minister Yoon Jeung-hyun of the Ministry of Strategy and Finance.