Park Yong-man "COVID-19 Supplementary Budget Greatly Insufficient, Expansion Needed up to 40 Trillion Won" (Comprehensive)

Park Yong-man, Chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, holds an emergency press conference on COVID-19 at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Jung-gu, Seoul on the 9th. At this event, Chairman Park said, "Please proactively expand the supplementary budget for COVID-19." Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Changhwan Lee] Park Yong-man, Chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, argued that the supplementary budget of around 11 trillion won for responding to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) is insufficient to revive economic vitality and should be significantly expanded to 40 trillion won.

On the 9th, Chairman Park held an emergency press conference at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry building in Jung-gu, Seoul, stating, "The government has prepared a supplementary budget of 11.7 trillion won to respond to COVID-19, but to revive the economy, the scale of the supplementary budget must be proactively expanded."

He said, "Some experts believe that our economic growth rate will drop by at least 0.3 percentage points and up to more than 1 percentage point due to COVID-19," and analyzed, "With the current budget of 11.7 trillion won, the impact on the economic growth rate will be only about 0.2 percentage points." He added, "To raise the economic growth rate by 1.0 percentage point, the supplementary budget should be increased up to a maximum of 40 trillion won."

Chairman Park forecasted, "The industrial sector is experiencing unprecedented damage across the board due to COVID-19," and "It seems the damage will continue for a considerable period." He continued, "Now is the time for bold policies," and "The supplementary budget should be greatly expanded to change the direction of the economy, which is stagnating due to COVID-19."

He also pointed out, "There are voices from the corporate field that the government's support measures are not being properly felt," and "Especially, the financial support pipeline must operate smoothly so that small and medium-sized enterprises and small business owners can receive timely funds at frontline financial institution counters."

To this end, he said, "The government needs to make active efforts to simplify related support procedures for financial institutions." He also emphasized, "Frontline financial institutions may be passive in lending, etc.," and "The government and the Bank of Korea must step in to widen the pipeline."

He also expressed willingness to visit the National Assembly again to persuade lawmakers to expand the supplementary budget. Chairman Park said, "I have not yet visited the National Assembly or conveyed additional discussions for the COVID-19 supplementary budget," and "If expanding the supplementary budget is difficult, I will visit the National Assembly to persuade them."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.