President Moon and Prime Minister Kim Discuss Livelihood Issues: "Considering Additional Indirectly Affected Industries"

Jurae Meeting... "Considering Mandatory Registration for Electronic Gift Certificate Issuers"

President Moon Jae-in and Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum having their first weekly meeting at Sangchunjae, the Blue House, on May 17. (Image source=Yonhap News)

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] The government has decided to consider adding indirect damage sectors to the compensation for losses suffered by small business owners due to COVID-19 quarantine measures.

President Moon Jae-in and Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum held their weekly meeting at the Blue House on the afternoon of the 12th, exchanging opinions on livelihood issues such as compensation for small business losses, livestock infectious diseases, and improvements to the electronic gift certificate system.

At the meeting, Prime Minister Kim told President Moon, "In addition to directly affected industries, we have prepared financial and fiscal support measures for indirectly affected sectors such as travel and performance industries," and added, "If necessary, we will also explore additional support measures for other sectors," according to the Prime Minister's Office. He also stated, "The compensation calculation criteria were finalized through the compensation review committee last week, and we will thoroughly prepare to ensure there are no delays in payments by the end of October."

Prime Minister Kim also announced plans to improve the electronic gift certificate system to prevent damages like the 'Merge Point refund incident.' He plans to mandate registration for issuers with outstanding balances above a certain threshold and require that registered electronic gift certificates clearly indicate their registration status. Kim said, "We will promptly complete the ongoing police investigation and the Financial Supervisory Service's probe into unregistered companies, and based on the investigation results, we will prepare additional supplementary measures if necessary." However, since mandating registration requires amendments to the Electronic Financial Transactions Act, he explained that criteria for registration and other details will be further reviewed with related ministries such as the Financial Services Commission and the Fair Trade Commission.

Furthermore, Prime Minister Kim reported that African Swine Fever (ASF) has recently occurred again in Inje-gun, Gangwon-do, and avian influenza (AI) antigens continue to be detected in wild bird droppings, stating that "we are responding with vigilance."

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