Population Task Force Activated for Regional Relocation Incentives... Promoting Polarization Resolution

Activities to Begin Next Month... Detailed Q2 Policy Announcement

Kim Yong-beom, First Vice Minister of Strategy and Finance, appointed as the head of the 3rd Population Policy Task Force (TF). (Image source=Yonhap News)

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] The government is launching the 3rd Population Policy Task Force (TF) to prepare for the changing population structure due to low birth rates and aging.

Led by Kim Yong-beom, the 1st Vice Minister of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the TF, which includes first-level officials from related ministries, will begin activities next month and announce detailed policies starting in the second quarter.

On the 27th, Hong Nam-ki, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, held an emergency economic central countermeasure headquarters meeting at the Government Seoul Office and stated, "We intend to focus on four major tasks: mitigating the shock of the population cliff, responding to a shrinking society, addressing regional extinction, and enhancing social sustainability."

Particularly notable is the decision to strengthen local competitiveness to prevent the concentration phenomenon toward the metropolitan area.

This is a strategic move to simultaneously resolve polarization and regional extinction.

First, measures to address the decline in the school-age population through strengthening university competitiveness will be developed.

This considers the increasing number of universities facing limits due to inability to fill admission quotas caused by low birth rates and aging.

To enhance university competitiveness, the TF will promote role-sharing between national/public and private universities and prepare comprehensive management plans for marginal universities.

Customized measures will be prepared for industries severely affected by workforce aging.

Policies to alleviate women's career interruptions will be reviewed, including improvements to elementary school childcare services.

Incentives to promote the relocation of population and companies from the metropolitan area to local regions will be strengthened, and integrated support programs will be developed.

Development strategies will also be established to concentrate core functions such as administration and education in hub cities within regions, including the creation of urban convergence special zones.

In rural, fishing, and mountainous areas, a comprehensive management plan will be prepared to promote "compressed urbanization" by renovating underused or aging infrastructure.

This is interpreted as recognizing that poorer local education and job conditions compared to the metropolitan area influence metropolitan concentration and birth rates.

The reality that 1955, the eldest year of the baby boom generation born between 1955 and 1963, turns 65 this year was also taken into account.

Support plans for senior entrepreneurship and career development for the elderly will be prepared.

Measures to enhance the soundness of the National Pension and Health Insurance will also be established.

The National Pension will set long-term target returns and improve asset allocation systems.

Health Insurance will reform the fee system and strengthen non-covered service management to find ways to improve expenditure efficiency.

In preparation for a super-aged society, the health and medical delivery system will be reorganized, and elderly care service capabilities will be strengthened.

Additionally, legal and institutional foundations will be changed to recognize diverse family forms such as de facto marriages, cohabitation without marriage, and unmarried childbirth households.

New types of visas will be developed to respond to labor shortages in simple labor industries caused by the aging of foreign workers and to attract excellent foreign professionals.

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