Focus on New Growth Engines and Inflation

Deputy Minister Kim H.W. for the National Agenda 2 of
the Prime Minster's Office spells out major tasks for his office

Deputy Minister Kim Ho-won for the National Agenda 2 at the Prime Minister's Office in this written interview with NewsWorld discusses various issues and plans that his office will take charge of this year.
He said his office will work on policies to restrain inflation for stable public livelihood and exert its utmost efforts in the promotion of green growth policies and projects and 17 new future growth engines that the government selected to push as part of its vision to make Korea among the top seven countries in the area of green growth by 2020 and the top five countries economically by 2050. These growth engines include the export of nuclear power plants, the development of a 40-inch LED TV, and new and recycled energy, among others, with an investment of 17.5 trillion won.

Question: Can you please tell our readers about the measures to be taken for buried livestock due to foot and mouth disease and ways to improve methods to prevent the spread of livestock disease epidemics in the future?
Answer: Since the outbreak of the foot and mouth disease on Nov. 28, we have done our best to keep the disease from spreading around the country.
Fortunately, since Feb. 26, the new outbreak of the disease stopped, not even reports of suspected cases since March 3, showing without a doubt that the dreadful sickness has been arrested. We know the public is uneasy about the hygienic conditions of the burial grounds of the affected livestock. The government set up a pan-governmental task force to investigate the conditions of the sanitary conditions of the burial grounds and surrounding areas on March 4 and those in need of additional work should be attended to by the end of this month.
The government will check the preventive measures for epidemics on this occasion and set up new plans to cope with new conditions if needed. We will not spare our support to the livestock industry to further develop it and make it more competitive.

Q: What are some of the measures being taken to cope with sudden rises in oil prices due to the Middle East situation for state-run companies?
A: In the public sector, local autonomous organizations have begun to save power by turning off lights in public places at night including memorial towers, water fountains and bridges, except the events and public places that need lighting as determined by the heads of local autonomous organizations.
We plan to strengthen the five alternative days for the driving of private autos by appointing an official in charge of each sector and display the enforcement conditions regularly. Also, measures to turn out lights at midnight at such places as department stores, large marts and other sources of outdoor lighting such as neon signs, ad boards and apartments have been enforced since March 8 following a week-long experiment period.
In order to encourage the participation of civilians in the light saving campaign, we plan to replace LED board lights at the cost of 10 billion won and pay back some of the power bills if they are less than what they were before the power saving efforts under the cash back system operated by Korea Electric Power Corp. and Korea Gas Corp.
We will also strengthen the power saving measures if oil prices continue to rise.

Q: What are some of the causes of the poor financial conditions of savings and loan banks and what are some of the measures available to solve this crisis?
A: The poor state of the savings and loan banks is traceable to their loose management, a sluggish real estate market and the global financial crisis, among other domestic and foreign factors. We feel that the health of savings and loan banks should be strengthened to prevent the recurrence of a financial disaster for those small financial institutions. We will have to strengthen the supervision of those financial institutions while reviewing the exceptional measures for those savings and loan banks. For example, the 8.8 savings and loan banks are allowed to exceed the 8-billion-won loan limit.
Harsher punishments should be handed out to major shareholders and management personnel when they commit illegal acts against the savings and loan banks they work for in order to stop them from turning them into private banks.
Basically, we have to make those savings and loan banks assume their originally intended role, which is to be a local financial institution for the general public.
At the present time, the Financial Services Commission is working on a comprehensive plan to prevent them from sustaining financial losses and to strengthen their financial health and we will observe how the plan works and supplement it as we go along, if needed, to the extent that the public's trust in the financial market will be restored soon enough.

Q: Can you please explain the core of the plan to build a base for our future growth?
A: Korea is at the early stages of becoming an advanced country at the moment and to be truly an advanced nation we have to boost our growth potential in such areas as green growth and other future growth engines. In order to accomplish this, the government has been pushing a mid-to-long term development plan, especially the major objectives making up the plan.
Green Growth Policies:
In 2009 the government set up a five-year plan that calls for Korea to be among the top seven green growth countries in the world by 2020 and among the top five nations by 2050 under its green growth strategies that will be followed to push the plan.
Currently, the government has been promoting 10 major tasks under its three major strategies including coping with climate change, making Korea energy self-sufficient and searching for new growth engines by ministries in charge and the tasks include the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, raising living standards, and national image and building a green growth base, and revolution of daily life-style, among others.
More Effective Promotion of New Growth Engine Search:
The government has already found 17 new growth engines, including new and recycled energy, in a bid to be a trendsetter in the age of environmentally friendly fusion and also to overcome the global financial crisis. The government has been promoting the vision and development strategies for new growth engines set up in January 2009 and a detailed plan for the promotion of new growth engines, which includes a budget of 17.5 trillion won to move the plan forward.
Among the new growth engines, we already won the right to export nuclear power plants to the United Arab Emirates worth $20 billion, the development of an electric car and the development of a 40-inch LED TV monitor, among others, which will be food for our future economic growth.
The Prime Minister's Office will lead the pan-governmental effort as the control tower in such areas as manpower training reflecting changes in markets and technologies, attracting private investments and improving government financial support to strengthen the future base for our industries.
The government will also make efforts to build the system for pan-governmental policies promotion for national knowledge assets, knowing that knowledge assets are part of a key survival strategy for businesses. The government is about to set up the initial draft for the Knowledge Asset Basic Law in consultation with businesses, universities and research institutions.

Q: Can you please tell us about your office's major tasks for this year?
A: We plan to correct some unfair practices that emerged in the business world in the area of market domination and set up a market economic order as one of the centerpieces of our tasks for this year.
We have picked fraud in the insurance industry as the top matter to be solved to help make a society based on trust through various measures and regulations. We will also exert our efforts for the government's projects and policies, which will have visible results such as green growth, new growth engines and other core policies and projects. We will also revise them if needed for successful results.
We will closely monitor the prices of commodities for a stable livelihood for the general public by reducing the burdens caused by excessive price increases.
We will also focus on taking care of major issues that cause conflicts in the country such as the location of a new airport and the normalization of the financial conditions of the Land and Housing Corp. nw




Deputy Minister Kim Ho-won for the National Agenda 2 at the Prime Minister's Office.
- Photo by courtesy of NewsWorld