Additional Support for COVID-19 'Diagnostic Test and Isolation Treatment Costs'... '4.6 Trillion+α' for Quarantine and Economic Reinforcement

Urgent Comprehensive Measures for Livelihood and Economy

60 Billion KRW Newly Allocated for Strengthening Quarantine Measures
40 Trillion KRW Newly Allocated for Domestic Demand Recovery and Livelihood Support

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[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Joo Sang-don] The government has decided to provide additional support for COVID-19 diagnostic testing fees and isolation treatment costs in response to the resurgence of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19). Including this, it plans to invest approximately 4.6 trillion KRW + α in a quarantine and economic reinforcement package.

On the 10th, the government announced the 'Emergency Comprehensive Livelihood and Economic Measures' containing these details through a joint briefing at the Emergency Economic Meeting.

The quarantine and economic reinforcement package, which includes the comprehensive measures, aims to thoroughly strengthen quarantine response projects to fully curb the spread of COVID-19 and minimize the economic impact through proactive fiscal execution.

To strengthen quarantine measures, first, an additional 100 billion KRW (approximately 2 million people) will be allocated to support diagnostic testing fees in preparation for the increase in confirmed COVID-19 cases. Additionally, 100 billion KRW (approximately 120,000 people) will be provided to secure temporary living facilities, treatment centers, clinics, and treatment costs for isolation and treatment of confirmed COVID-19 patients. To alleviate management difficulties of medical institutions caused by the COVID-19 spread, compensation support for medical institution losses (200 billion KRW) and management stabilization funds (100 billion KRW) will also be expanded. Furthermore, 100 billion KRW will be increased to proactively secure advance payments for overseas COVID-19 vaccine procurement.

For domestic demand recovery and livelihood support, efforts will be made to ▲ minimize fiscal slippage and encourage local governments to implement supplementary budgets actively ▲ expand public institution investments and strengthen execution of private and corporate investments.

By minimizing fiscal slippage, the government plans to increase the execution rate as much as possible and push for an additional 2 trillion KRW in spending. The execution target for major projects in the third supplementary budget (19.1 trillion KRW) will be raised from 75% to 80% by the end of September, aiming to execute an additional 1 trillion KRW in the third quarter alone.

Public institution investments will be fully executed through investment execution monitoring meetings, achieving an additional execution effect of about 1 trillion KRW compared to last year from this year’s public institution investment (initially 60.5 trillion KRW). Additionally, 1 trillion KRW of next year’s public institution investment plans for road safety and power transmission construction will be brought forward to the fourth quarter of this year for early investment.

Regarding private investments, thorough execution management will ensure the achievement of this year’s investment target of 5.2 trillion KRW (2.6 trillion KRW in the second half of the year), and active efforts will be made to discover additional private projects. Corporate investments will be continuously monitored to ensure smooth execution of 4.6 trillion KRW scheduled to start construction in the second half of the year out of the 25 trillion KRW annual target, with timely support to resolve difficulties.

Measures to maintain export capacity were also announced. The government plans to prepare a non-face-to-face and online export activation plan by early next month, including expanding online export exhibition halls by industry and strengthening online promotional support. To promote sales of consumer goods, support will be provided for online marketing of small and medium-sized enterprises’ export products linked with country-specific shopping seasons and online Korean Wave events (KCON). Additionally, export support for small and medium-sized enterprises will be promoted using overseas e-commerce platforms (Taobao, Kuaishou, etc.) and live commerce conducted simultaneously domestically and abroad. The government will also ensure smooth support for export financing (118 trillion KRW) and logistics cost support planned for the second half of the year and actively expand support according to field demand.

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