10th Ministerial Meeting on Boosting the Economy
9th Ministerial Meeting on the Economy of 2019
Government to Promote Private Investment in Infrastructure
Deputy Prime Minister, Hong Nam-ki, presided over the 10th Ministerial Meeting on Boosting the Economy, that is, the 9th Ministerial Meeting on the Economy of this year, held on March 13. The meeting discussed ways to promote private investment in infrastructure projects, as well as how to improve government’s financial support for industrial innovation. DPM Hong talked about the February employment statistics at the beginning of the meeting.
The following is a summary of DPM Hong’s keynote address.
Employment Statistics for February 2019
The Korean economy added 263,000 jobs year-on-year in February 2019, the biggest increase in 13 months. The labor force participation rate rose 0.3 percentage points to 62.3 percent as service jobs increased by 310,000 due to strong ICT, healthcare and social welfare services. Manufacturing and wholesale & retail jobs continued to fall, and jobs in hotels & restaurants rose for the first time in 21 months.
The economy saw more than 200,000 jobs created for the first time in 13 months in February, and we will continue to work for the country’s job growth to stabilize.
Promote private investment in infrastructure projects
- Early start projects: Work for the 13 projects scheduled to start in 2020 or later, a total of 12.6 trillion won worth of investment, to break ground this year, including the construction of highways and sewage treatment facilities
- Follow the procedure earlier than the schedule, which is needed to attract private investment in infrastructure: Work for the 11 projects, worth 4.9 trillion won, to start 10 months earlier on average than the scheduled time
- Work to expand private investment, such as by revising related laws, by allowing private investment in all types of infrastructure projects, an expansion from 53 facilities currently available for private investment, more than 1.5 trillion won of new investment being expected to be made due to this change
- Work to raise the credit guarantee ceiling for private infrastructure investment from 400 billion won to 500 billion won
Improve government’s financial support for industrial innovation
As the government has set aside 53 trillion won to support industrial innovation, we need to work on the most efficient use of the budget. We will transform our investment from conservative and safety-seeking to more risk-taking and innovation-driven. To this end, we will
- Launch a database, the Intelligent System to Support Industrial Innovation, on March 15 to efficiently manage government’s industrial innovation support: The database will contain information on support given and outcome analyses provided by six major public financial institutions, such as Korea Development Bank and Korea Technology Finance Corporation.
- Launch a startup support package which includes professional expertise provided by the private sector, as well as financial support provided by the government
- Establish a strong budget feedback system to encourage public financial institutions to more actively involved in supporting industrial innovation
- Launch an industrial innovation committee on March 15 to regularly check over the government’s industrial innovation support, which will consist of high ranking officials from related ministries and 11 major public financial institutions
Please refer to the attached pdf