Hong Nam-ki: "Compensation for Losses Cannot Be Done Today or Tomorrow... Calm Review Needed"

The 28th Emergency Economic Central Countermeasures Headquarters Meeting

Hong Nam-ki, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, is speaking while presiding over the 28th Emergency Economic Central Countermeasures Headquarters meeting and the 1st Innovation Growth Strategy meeting of 2021 held at the Government Seoul Office Building on the 27th. 2021.1.27 Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Son Sun-hee] Hong Nam-ki, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, said on the 27th regarding the legislation of compensation for losses due to COVID-19 quarantine measures, "It is not possible to do things like 'prepare a plan today - legislate tomorrow - pay the day after tomorrow'." It appears he is trying to slow down the pace as excessive attention has recently been focused on the legislation of loss compensation.

Deputy Prime Minister Hong presided over the "28th Emergency Economic Central Countermeasures Headquarters (Economic Central Headquarters) Meeting and the 1st Innovation Growth Strategy Meeting of 2021" at the Government Seoul Office in the morning and said in his opening remarks, "There are many issues to check such as methods of institutionalizing loss compensation, targets, standards, costs, funding, and foreign cases, and since national acceptance and financial feasibility must also be considered, a calm review is necessary."

Regarding the preliminary GDP growth rate (-1.0%) announced by the Bank of Korea the previous day, he said, "Although we could not avoid negative growth due to the pandemic, compared to advanced countries ranked within the top 10 in the world economy expecting negative growth of 3-10%, this is a very good result," but expressed regret, saying, "If COVID-19 had somewhat subsided in the second half of last year and daily economic activities were possible, could we have prevented negative growth?" He added, "The government will mobilize all policy capabilities and make every effort to ensure a 'fast and strong economic recovery and rebound' this year based on a serious recognition of last year's negative growth and difficulties in people’s livelihoods."

At the Economic Central Headquarters meeting that day, three items were discussed: ▲ Major tasks and promotion plans of the 3rd Population Policy Task Force (TF) ▲ Cosmetics industry and K-Beauty innovation comprehensive strategy ▲ 3rd public institution on-site consensus small and medium enterprise regulatory difficulty improvement measures.

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