President Lee: Focus on Three Key Social Policies—Housing Supply, Jobs and Inclusive Finance

[Financial News] On the 13th, President Lee Jae-myung said, “It is time to join forces to bridge the gap caused by polarization and lower the walls of inequality for greater growth and more sustainable development.” He called on the government to “concentrate its resources on advancing three key social policies: housing supply, job stability and inclusive finance.”
At a Cabinet meeting he chaired at Cheong Wa Dae that day, President Lee said, “The three mega-projects can succeed only if they are supported by the three key social policies. From that perspective, I ask you to step up efforts to develop and implement specific, feasible policies.”
President Lee emphasized, “Domestic and international institutions are successively revising upward their forecasts for Korea’s growth this year, and some are even predicting that 4% growth is possible. Some companies are also posting operating profits that would have been unimaginable in the past.” He added, “The more dazzling the light of growth, the more carefully we must examine the shadows behind it.”
He noted, “Statistics show that the gap in ordinary income between households in the top 20% and those in the bottom 20% persists, and the Gini coefficient for net wealth, which reflects the wealth gap, has hardly improved. The difficulties faced by small and medium-sized enterprises, small-business owners and young people have also changed little.” He warned, “If we continue to leave these problems facing so many people unaddressed, the vitality of the economy as a whole will ultimately decline, and the door to new growth that we are struggling to open could soon close.”
President Lee also said, “We need to prepare proactively for the restructuring that the accelerating, sweeping AI transformation will bring to various parts of society and the economy,” adding, “We must steadily build a tightly woven basic social safety net across all aspects of people’s lives, including income, housing, healthcare, care and education.”
He added, “Economic growth and reducing disparities are two sides of the same coin and necessary and sufficient conditions for a Korea where we live together. We must devote all our efforts to creating an irreplaceable Korea where everyone has fair opportunities and shares in the benefits of growth.”

[email protected] Choi Jong-geun Reporter