Government Selects First 100 Core Economic Security Items... Managed by Grade

3rd Economic Security Core Items TF Meeting

Lee Ok-won, Vice Minister of Strategy and Finance [Photo by Yonhap News]

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Son Seon-hee] The government has made a preliminary selection of about 100 'core economic security items' spanning key domestic industries and everyday life sectors, prompted by the shortage of urea solution. Going forward, these items will be graded and intensively managed according to their importance through an Early Warning System (EWS).

On the 10th, Lee Eok-won, First Vice Minister of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, held the '3rd Economic Security Core Items Task Force (TF) Meeting' at the Government Seoul Office to discuss the selection plan for core economic security items and related matters.

The government has so far comprehensively reviewed factors such as domestic economic impact, external dependency, short-term urgency, and the possibility of domestic production or import substitution to identify candidate core economic security items by ministry. Based on this, about 100 items were preliminarily selected. These mainly include items that are excessively dependent on specific countries or have high international price volatility, which could cause significant negative impacts on industrial supply chains or inconvenience to citizens if supply is disrupted.

The government confirmed the first designation of core items on this day and plans to immediately expand the target industries and scope to begin the second selection process.

Additionally, the government selected 50 more items deemed necessary by ministries to add to the existing approximately 4,000 EWS items. All these EWS target items will be assigned grades in four levels?'A-B-C-D'?based on urgency and importance. Items classified as grade A will be monitored weekly, grade B biweekly, grade C monthly, and grade D quarterly, with differentiated inspection cycles.

As a result of operating the EWS mainly through overseas diplomatic missions and KOTRA trade centers, it was found that price volatility has increased for a considerable number of items. The government plans to check supply chain risks focusing on items with high import dependency on specific countries and difficult substitution.

The government will continue to discuss supply stabilization measures for the already designated 'Top 20 Priority Management Items' and urea solution.

The government stated, "We will promptly finalize the first selection of about 100 core economic security items and supply stabilization measures for the top 20 items through the Foreign Economic Security Strategy Meeting as soon as possible. Based on a thorough review of global supply chain conditions, we will also quickly prepare stabilization measures for the remaining 80 or so items and continue to expand the designation of core items."

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