Lee Jae-myung "My Son Is Also Unemployed... I Feel Sorry and Sympathetic for Today's Youth with Few Opportunities"

Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung is applauding at the 'Business Agreement Ceremony for Expanding the Use of Reusable Delivery and Packaging Food Containers' held on the afternoon of the 25th at the Gyeonggi Provincial Government Situation Room.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Sumi] Lee Jae-myung, Governor of Gyeonggi Province, confessed to the 2030 youth, "I will listen to your stories a lot," adding, "My own son is also struggling as a newcomer to society and as an unemployed person."

Governor Lee made these remarks on the 26th at the inauguration ceremony of the '1st Gyeonggi Province Youth Participation Organization,' held in a metaverse format. The metaverse is a compound word of meta, meaning virtual and abstract, and universe, meaning reality, referring to the use of VR technology to interact in a virtual world as if it were real. Governor Lee was at the provincial government situation room, while the youth connected to the virtual space from various locations and met as avatars to talk.

Governor Lee said, "We also went through our youth during difficult times, but back then there were many opportunities and many new attempts were possible, so we lived with hope. However, today's youth have so few opportunities that they have lost hope, competition has become fierce, the desire for fairness has grown, and the situation has escalated from dissatisfaction to anger over unfairness."

He also expressed regret over the situation of the youth. He said, "As the older generation and politicians responsible for managing this society, I feel truly sorry and regretful. Youth are key members of our society, but they cannot participate in decision-making and do not know how policies are made, which leads to a significant lack of on-site relevance," adding, "Even Gyeonggi Province is trying to reflect the opinions of the youth generation in policies."

Governor Lee said, "Even if it is uncomfortable or insufficient, please participate a lot in the policy decision-making and execution process," and added, "No matter how much I talk, I probably cannot fully understand your difficulties and painful situations, so I will listen to your voices a lot."

Gyeonggi Province held the inauguration ceremony of the "1st Gyeonggi Province Youth Participation Organization" on the 26th to expand policy participation opportunities for youth and activate communication.
[Photo by Gyeonggi Province]

The Gyeonggi Province Youth Participation Organization is a youth policy advisory body composed of 200 youth members aged 19 to 39. It is divided into a 'basic field' with high policy demand such as housing and jobs, and a 'voluntary field' where opinions are freely expressed, playing a role in discovering agendas and presenting policy opinions.

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