SEOUL– The government and the ruling party vowed Monday to execute their economic policy with an aim to achieve per-capital gross domestic product (GDP) of US$40,000 by 2027, the final year of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration’s five-year term.
“The party and the government shared views that after overcoming an imminent crisis, which would be the key issue for next year’s economic policy, reaching a per-capita GDP of $40,000 by the final year of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration will be our vision,” Rep. Sung Il-jong, chief policymaker of the People Power Party (PPP), said in a briefing following a policy consultation meeting on the government’s 2023 economic policy.
Noting that the South Korean economy is likely to face economic headwinds next year, especially in the first half, Sung said the ruling party urged the government to preemptively tackle economic risks through incentives and deregulation aimed at recovering exports and investments.
“We requested that the focus of economic policy be on recovering vitality in the private sector, such as exports and investment, through bold incentives and deregulation,” Sung said, adding that the party asked the government to ramp up its export policy to keep the current account surplus in the black.
To prevent economic fallout affecting livelihood matters, the party asked the government to expand its safety net for workers and nurture new growth engines to keep the economy on track.
Also discussed in the meeting were reforms in the five areas of pension, labor, education systems as well as finance and service industries, Sung said.
Last week, Yoon said that reform of the pension, labor and education systems is essential for the nation’s sustainability and called for every effort to make that happen.
Source: Yonhap News Agency