Hong Nam-ki: "Next Year, Employment Insurance to Apply to 14 Special Employment and Platform Sectors... Expanded to 7.33 Million by 2025" (Comprehensive)

Emergency Economic Central Countermeasures Headquarters Meeting Held on the 23rd
New Deal Fund Operation Plan and More Revealed

Hong Nam-ki, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, is delivering opening remarks at the 'Emergency Economic Central Countermeasures Headquarters Meeting and Korean New Deal Related Ministers Meeting' held on the 23rd at the Government Seoul Office in Jongno-gu, Seoul. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyunjung] The government announced that it will apply employment insurance to special-type workers (teukgo) and platform workers in 14 industries next year, and expand the number of subscribers by 7.33 million compared to last year by 2025. Regarding the previously controversial subscription conditions, the policy is to change the criteria from 'working hours' to 'income' and allow everyone to subscribe if a certain income is generated.

Hong Nam-ki, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, presided over the "23rd Emergency Economic Central Countermeasures Headquarters Meeting and 7th Korean New Deal Ministerial Meeting" at the Seoul Government Complex on the 23rd, stating, "We will stabilize the employment insurance for artists starting this year, and then expand employment insurance coverage for special-type and platform industries to about 14 industrial accident insurance applicable occupations in the second half of next year, platform workers with easily identifiable employers in the first half of 2022, and other special-type and platform industries in the second half of 2022."

He addressed issues such as eliminating blind spots and employment insurance subscription based on income, which had been controversial. Deputy Prime Minister Hong said, "Among wage workers, an estimated 3.74 million non-subscribers will be covered by expanding automatic enrollment through shortening the submission cycle of employers' income data and activating information sharing between the National Tax Service and the Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service, thereby minimizing blind spots in practice." He added, "By 2023, the employment insurance subscription criteria for wage workers will change from the current working hours (60 hours or more per month) to income, and by 2025, all jobs with a certain income or higher will be able to subscribe to employment insurance."

The government plans to finalize the nationwide employment insurance roadmap through today's meeting and hold a joint briefing with related ministries in the afternoon. Regarding this, he emphasized, "The nationwide employment insurance roadmap to be announced today will expand the employment insurance coverage by about 7.33 million people by 2025 and fundamentally shift the employment insurance system, which is centered on wage workers, to an income-based system." He continued, "It will be a fundamental measure to expand employment insurance coverage by about 7.33 million people by 2025 and to transition the employment insurance system centered on wage workers to an income-based system."

Hong Nam-ki, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, is delivering opening remarks at the 'Emergency Economic Central Countermeasures Headquarters Meeting and Korean New Deal Related Ministers Meeting' held on the 23rd at the Government Seoul Office in Jongno-gu, Seoul. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

The operational plan for the policy-type New Deal Fund, which aims for a total of 20 trillion won by 2025, was also disclosed today. Deputy Prime Minister Hong stated, "We will finalize follow-up measures such as fund resource allocation and private incentive systems before the sub-fund recruitment announcement at the end of this year so that fund formation can officially begin in March next year." He explained, "We will form the policy-type New Deal Fund through government investment and private matching, investing up to 30% (10-30%) in New Deal infrastructure and the remaining 70-90% in New Deal-related companies. We plan to operate an investment proposal-type fund that invests more than 50% in six core industries including DNA, and a growth-type fund that supports corporate scale-up through mergers and acquisitions (M&A), research and development (R&D), etc."

Regarding investment incentives, he said, "To induce long-term and venture investments from private capital and prevent concentration, we will allow the fund operation period to be extended up to 20 years (usually 7-8 years) in necessary fields in addition to subordinate investment by the government." He emphasized, "We will provide incentives such as increasing the policy investment ratio up to 45% (average 35%) depending on investment necessity and risk, and lowering the performance fee payment benchmark rate to a maximum of 4% (usually around 7%)." Additionally, he added, "We will first form a private placement fund with public re-investment participation by the general public at a scale of 140 billion won in 2021, and to actively encourage public participation, we will increase the government's subordinate investment ratio up to 20% (average 10%)."

Along with this, the government announced that it will raise the eco-friendly ship conversion rate from the current 1% level to 15% by 2030. It emphasized, "We will convert 388 public ships and 140 private ships to eco-friendly ships and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from eco-friendly ships by up to 70% compared to existing ships by 2030."

Deputy Prime Minister Hong also addressed the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) on this day, urging, "For both quarantine and the economy, I earnestly request that everyone comply with quarantine measures in a united manner during the year-end and New Year period, as the current 2.5+α level is being strongly enforced with all-out efforts."

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