On May 8, Acting Minister of Economy and Finance Kim Beomseok chaired the Ministerial Meeting on Economic Affairs at the Government Complex-Seoul.
* Participants: Ministers and Vice Ministers of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Employment and Labor, Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, Ministry of SMEs and Startups, Office for Government Policy Coordination, and the Financial Services Commission.
In a time of greater-than-ever uncertainty for the Korean economy, the economic team will focus all efforts on managing risks and addressing current issues without faltering. While continuing to operate the Ministerial Meeting on Economic Affairs, the control tower of economic policy, the government will also respond to issues such as people’s livelihoods and tariff-related damage through task forces on trade, employment, and prices. Support for strengthening industrial competitiveness and restoring people’s livelihoods stability will continue to be managed and enhanced.
In particular, 12 trillion won of the total supplementary budget will be designated for execution and management, with plans to swiftly execute over 70% of this amount by the end of July to spread economic vitality across all sectors. In order to facilitate the rapid recovery from wildfire damage and provide timely assistance to affected residents, disaster relief funds (450 billion won) and costs for disaster waste disposal (112 billion won) will be disbursed to local governments without delay by the end of May. The procurement contract for the introduction of forest helicopters will also be expedited, with plans to complete the necessary procedures - beginning with the project announcement - and finalize the agreement by August.
Efforts will also be promptly launched to respond to the evolving trade environment and strengthen AI competitiveness. The government plans to select beneficiary companies and begin providing export vouchers - including tariff response vouchers - worth 178.6 billion won starting in June. In addition, a special low-interest support program for tariff response, funded by a 100 billion won contribution from the Korea Development Bank, will be introduced in May, with the goal of supplying up to 4 trillion won within the year. With regard to AI development support, the government will begin accepting applications from project operators in May to secure high-performance GPUs worth 1.7 trillion won. Not only that, The selection of an elite team to participate in the “World Best LLM” project (50 billion won) will be completed by July.
The government will also swiftly implement livelihood support programs aimed at revitalizing sectors facing difficulties, including low-income households, small business owners, and the construction industry. Disbursement of the 1.6 trillion won “Burden Relief Credit” for small business owners is scheduled to begin in July, with the goal of supporting over 3 million recipients by the end of the year. Furthermore, subsidies for the “Co-prosperity Payback” program (1.4 trillion won) and subsidies to support discounts on local gift certificates (400 billion won) is scheduled for prompt disbursement.
Over 70% of the funds for livelihood social overhead capital (SOC) projects, including railway (212.5 billion won) and road (93.1 billion won) maintenance, along with the public rental housing REITs program (with an investment of 150 billion won), will also be executed by July.
At the meeting, participants discussed key matters including the Execution Plan for the 2025 Supplementary Budget.
Please refer to the attached files.
