Koo Yun-cheol: "With war dragging on and financial uncertainty rising, we must stay alert and accelerate efforts to improve livelihoods"

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\r\n[Financial News]  Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs and Minister of Finance and Economy Koo Yun-cheol said on the 22nd that, amid heightened domestic and external uncertainty such as the prolonged Middle East war and increased volatility in financial markets, "The government will continue to maintain a high level of vigilance while accelerating efforts to restore livelihoods and achieve a renewed economic leap forward."
\r\nKoo made the remarks while chairing the Emergency Economic Headquarters meeting, the Economic Ministers' Meeting, and the National Entrepreneurship Strategy Meeting at Government Complex Seoul. He said, "Along with efforts to ease the burden on households, including an extension of the fuel tax cut, we will also speed up structural reforms to lift potential growth and reduce polarization."
\r\nKoo said exports in May continued to show strength, with shipments through the 20th up 64.8% from a year earlier, and that the consumer sentiment index for May, released just before the meeting, also rebounded to 106.1 for the first time in three months. He added that the crisis caused by the Middle East war is being managed stably, as supply chain conditions are gradually improving thanks to the efforts of the public, businesses, and the government.
The government is also stepping up support for its flagship 'Everyone's Startup' project.
\r\nKoo said, "We will create a startup boom for the era of national entrepreneurship."
A total of 62,944 people applied for the 'Startups for All First Project,' which closed on the 15th, marking the largest-ever turnout for a startup and idea contest run by government ministries.
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups will select 5,000 first-round winners in June and provide each with 2 million won for close mentoring, startup activity funds, and AI solution usage costs.
Of those, 1,100 will be selected again to receive commercialization funding and preferential guarantees.
Final winners will be chosen through regional, district, and public auditions.
Starting in July, the government will launch the 'Startups for All Second Project' with a scale of 10,000 participants, doubling the first round. In addition to the existing Tech League and Local League, it plans to create new university, youth, and Global League tracks in the United States, Singapore, and India to promote broader competition.
The meeting also discussed plans to overhaul the personal information management system.
To build an AI and Digital Safe Society that the public can trust, the government will shift to a prevention-oriented personal information management system.
It will classify sectors into high-, medium-, and low-risk categories based on the scale of personal information handled, sensitivity, and industry-specific characteristics, and will conduct intensive inspections on high-risk sectors. It will also apply differentiated inspections and management in line with risk levels, including corrective recommendations for shortcomings.
In particular, the government will revise its incentive system to encourage voluntary corporate investment by reducing fines for companies that actively invest in personal information protection.
The government will also speed up the expansion of public incineration facilities.
To accelerate the early expansion of public incineration facilities, it plans to streamline administrative procedures and cut the project period, which normally takes about 12 years, by as much as three years and six months.
It will simplify procedures by exempting consultations on local fiscal investment reviews and shortening design adequacy checks.
Various permits and approvals, including environmental impact assessments, will be carried out at the same time as facility design.
The central government will also ease the burden on local governments by expanding the scope of state support from facility installation costs to include demolition costs for existing facilities and land acquisition costs.
Through these measures, the government said it will provide stable support for the operation of the Direct Landfill Ban on Household Waste, which is scheduled to take effect nationwide from 2030.
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skjung@fnnews.com Jung Sang-gyun Reporter