Government to Designate '200 Major Economic Security Core Items' Within the Year... Focused Management of Supply and Demand Situation

1st Economic Security Core Items TF Meeting

Lee Ok-won, 1st Vice Minister of Strategy and Finance Photo by Yonhap News

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Son Sun-hee] The government plans to designate up to 200 "key economic security items" within this year for focused management. Following the shortage of urea water, the government will also immediately operate an Early Warning System (EWS) starting this week for about 4,000 items with high external dependency.

On the morning of the 26th, Lee Eok-won, First Vice Minister of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, held the "1st Economic Security Key Items Task Force (TF) Meeting" at the Government Complex Seoul and stated, "Taking this incident as an opportunity, we will promote a systematic and comprehensive response by consolidating government-wide capabilities to strengthen the national-level supply chain risk management system that is resilient to global supply chain disruptions."

To implement this response, the government launched the "Economic Security Key Items TF," a comprehensive government-wide response system led by the First Vice Minister of the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Four working groups focusing on overall management, items, external affairs, and others are organized centered on the Vice Minister.

The EWS targets approximately 4,000 items with an import dependency rate of 50% or more on specific countries or those requiring monitoring for other reasons. When the Ministry of Foreign Affairs designates monitoring target countries mainly based on major import-dependent countries, the officials in charge at the respective diplomatic missions comprehensively inspect policies, trade disputes, and industrial trends and report periodically. To this end, an "Economic Security Officer" responsible for monitoring each country's diplomatic mission will be appointed.

For key items, a monitoring system will be established through cooperation with related organizations such as diplomatic missions, overseas trade offices, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, industry associations, trade associations, import associations, and specialized trading companies. If any abnormal signs are detected, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy will be notified, and a TF involving related industries will be formed to devise response strategies.

Supply chain inspection systems by sector, including agriculture and food, fisheries, pharmaceuticals, ICT, and forestry, will also be activated. Starting this week, priority inspections will be conducted on major grains and fertilizer raw materials, with plans to gradually expand the core management items in the future.

Vice Minister Lee said, "With the launch of this EWS, a joint first inspection was conducted by relevant ministries on items requiring urgent inspection. As a result, it was found that key materials related to major industries such as semiconductors, automobiles, and secondary batteries rely heavily on imports from specific countries, and supply chain risks exist due to increased global price volatility this year." He added, "For other items such as agricultural and fishery products, forest products, pharmaceuticals, and ICT, supply and demand are mostly stable, but close inspection and response are necessary for some unstable items like fertilizers."

The government also decided to designate 100 to 200 items among the EWS target items as "key economic security items" for focused management within this year. The designation will be completed next month by the TF after considering factors such as domestic economic impact, external dependency, short-term urgency, and the possibility of domestic production or import substitution. More specific customized stabilization measures will be prepared for the designated key economic security items.

Vice Minister Lee emphasized, "As seen in the case of the urea and urea water issues where various ministries were closely related, 'inter-ministerial cooperation' is a prerequisite for early identification of risk factors and prompt response to supply chain problems." He requested, "The Economic Security Key Items TF will be held once a week in principle for the time being, but please actively cooperate so that it can be operated as needed to play a vanguard role in economic security."

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