Lee Nak-yeon at Think Tank Launch Ceremony: "Bold Government Reorganization Needed," Mentions 'New Ministry of Housing'

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Ju-yeon] Lee Nak-yeon, former leader of the Democratic Party and a presidential candidate for the Democratic Party, mentioned on the 10th that a "bold organizational reform" is a task for the next government. He argued for the establishment of a new "Housing and Regional Development Department" dedicated to real estate issues, emphasizing the need for a large-scale government reorganization that matches the changes of the times.

On this day, Lee gave a keynote speech at a symposium hosted by "Solidarity and Coexistence" held at the Baekbeom Kim Koo Memorial Hall in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, stating, "To leap forward as a leading country, innovation of the existing system is necessary."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

"Solidarity and Coexistence" is a think tank organization preparing Lee’s presidential campaign pledges, with Kim Kyung-soo, honorary professor of economics at Sungkyunkwan University, serving as its head. Since it contains Lee’s vision for the next government, the launch ceremony was effectively Lee’s presidential campaign kickoff event.

Lee emphasized that the government organization and national operation system must be innovated.

Lee said, "The Moon Jae-in administration rushed in without a transition committee after impeachment, leaving government reorganization that responds to changes of the times as a task for the future," adding, "To end the 'era of catching up' and move to the 'era of overtaking,' bold reorganization of the government structure is necessary." He added, "This is also essential for the succession and development of the Moon administration."

To this end, Lee proposed separating transportation and logistics from the current Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, establishing a "Housing and Regional Development Department (Housing Department)" to take the lead and continuously handle housing issues, and creating a "Climate Energy Department" by separating energy and climate change tasks from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Ministry of Environment for comprehensive response.

He also suggested reorganizing the Korean Intellectual Property Office and merging intellectual property tasks from other ministries to establish a "Intellectual Property Office" directly under the Prime Minister, strengthening the Statistics Korea, and integrating statistics and data tasks from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and others to create a "Future Strategy Data Office." He plans to concretize these government organizational reforms through deeper discussions.

He also explained his policy vision of the "New Welfare System."

Lee said, "We live in an era of $30,000 per capita income, but welfare is still below the $20,000 level," emphasizing, "Now, welfare must be raised to the $30,000 level and the gaps must be tightly filled. That is the new welfare."

He mentioned that "specifically, it is about protecting people's lives in eight areas: income, housing, labor, education, medical care, care, culture, and environment," and noted that his national vision of "a country that protects my life" aligns with the goal of the new welfare.

Lee explained, "For the state to protect the lives of its people, an 'inclusive responsible government' and an 'innovative leading country' must be prerequisites," adding, "Even without parental background or inherited wealth, people must be able to succeed through passion and effort. An inclusive responsible state is one that enables people to get back up even after failure." He also said, "A leading country is one that serves as a model for other countries in the future of democracy, industrial structure transformation, and cultural values," and added, "To leap forward as a leading country, innovation of the existing system is necessary."

Lee, who spoke about government reorganization on this day, plans to announce his presidential pledges one by one through future public events.

After the symposium, Lee told reporters, "We will provide policy responses to new challenges while catching up with changes in the lives of the people that policies have not yet kept pace with."

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