17h Meeting of Central Economic Response Headquarters
4th Ministerial Meeting on the Korean New Deal
Government to Release Guidelines for
New Deal Fund Investment
Deputy Prime Minister Hong Nam-ki presided over the 17th Meeting of the Central Economic Response Headquarters, that is the 4th Ministerial Meeting on the Korean New Deal, held on September 28. Deputy Prime Minister Hong discussed plans to help the economy gain recovery momentum, reviewed the New Deal Fund investment guidelines and talked about plans to improve welfare for essential workers and ways to successfully hold the 2020 Korea Sale Festa scheduled in November. DPM Hong called for cooperation in the two week special disease prevention efforts from September 28 to October 11, the period during which the Chuseok holiday and another national holiday will fall.
The following is a summary of Deputy Prime Minister Hong’s keynote address.
Relief delivery before Chuseok
The government has started delivering the second round of COVID-19 reliefs, for which the 4th extra budget had been approved and most of which are to be delivered before Chuseok. Deliveries of small business reliefs worth 3.3 trillion won began on September 25, along with emergency wage support and childcare support. Support for small business owners who failed due to the pandemic is to start today and young job seeker support will start tomorrow.
We hope the reliefs will be a small help for those getting through hard time due to the disease.
Essential worker welfare
We thank essential workers who provide healthcare, waste collection and other essential services during the holiday. The government has been working to improve the welfare of those essential workers as we look into ways to provide them with industrial disaster compensation insurance, improve their work environment and strengthen safety nets. We will work to provide job-specific supports.
Help gain recovery momentum in fourth quarter
It seems difficult that the economy grows in the third quarter given the resurgence of the pandemic. However, the government will do its utmost for the economy to grow in the fourth quarter with its focus on the following.
- Reduce the amount of budgets unspent or carried over to next year
- Help implement the fourth quarter plan of the 100 trillion won investment project[1] as scheduled
- Find balance between disease prevention efforts and consumption-boost measures, and promote exports
Topics of discussion
1) Help gain recovery momentum in fourth quarter
2) Essential worker welfare
3) 2020 Korea Sale Festa
The 2020 Korea Sale Festa will be held as scheduled on November 1-15. We will make it as ‘untact’ as possible, focusing on online sales, and will provide thorough disease prevention during the event. To help revive local economies, we plan an online purchase and offline pickup system, and a drive-through shopping system. We hope the event will serve as an opportunity for small businesses and enterprises to recover from the COVID-19 social distancing.
4) New Deal Fund investment guidelines
We will review the New Deal Fund investment guidelines drawn up to promote private sector investment. The summary of the guidelines are as follows.
- Designate 40 sectors and 197 projects for industrial innovation investment, including industries relevant to the Korean New Deal
- Investment guidelines for the New Deal Infra Fund: The fund to invest in infrastructure needed for Green and Digital New Deal, as well as new infrastructure approved by the New Deal Infrastructure Committee
- Improve guidelines through meetings with professionals and communication with investors
The government will complete the revision of related laws this year and begin the procedure to select feeder fund managers, in order to launch the New Deal Fund next year.
