Hong Nam-ki "Port Usage Fee Reduction Extended for 6 More Months"... Temporary Measures Extended One After Another Due to Prolonged COVID-19 (Update)

Emergency Economic Central Countermeasures Headquarters Meeting

Hong Nam-ki, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, is presiding over the '51st Emergency Economic Central Countermeasures Headquarters Meeting' held at the Government Seoul Office Building on the 30th. 2021.12.30 [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Son Seon-hee] The government has decided to extend the reduction measures on port usage fees and terminal rental fees, originally scheduled to be implemented until the end of this year, until June next year. Additionally, financial support amounting to 800 billion KRW, including emergency management stabilization funds targeting the shipping industry, will also be extended for one more year. This is due to the prolonged fourth wave of COVID-19 caused by the Omicron variant, leading to a series of extensions for various temporarily applied support measures.

Hong Nam-ki, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, presided over the final Emergency Economic Central Countermeasures Headquarters meeting of the year at the Government Seoul Office on the 30th and announced this decision. This follows previous measures such as a six-month extension of rent reductions for small business owners in the public sector and the deferment of utility and social insurance payments (until March 2022).

Deputy Prime Minister Hong also stated, "We plan to review the extension of the designation of 14 special employment support industries, including travel and tourism accommodation, during the first quarter of next year." The designation of these industries as special employment support sectors is scheduled to end by the end of March next year, but if the severe quarantine situation continues into the first quarter, an extension is likely.

As the expected timing for entering the economic recovery phase has been delayed, the normalization of temporarily applied measures to respond to the COVID-19 crisis has also been postponed. However, Deputy Prime Minister Hong said, "Through a thorough inspection, we will calmly proceed with 'orderly normalization' by maintaining measures that still have urgency and effectiveness, and ending those that have largely achieved their goals."

Regarding this, he said, "The Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) purchase of corporate bonds and commercial papers (CP) will end as scheduled at the end of this year, but emergency response measures will be prepared in case of future market deterioration." He added, "Decisions on whether to normalize the bank forward foreign exchange position limit (raising by 25%) and whether to extend the foreign currency liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) regulation (from 80% to 70%) will be made later based on market conditions."

Reflecting on this year from an economic perspective, Deputy Prime Minister Hong said, "Macroeconomics, employment, and exports have performed relatively well compared to major countries, but there is a significant gap in the degree of impact and recovery speed between sectors," emphasizing, "Reducing such disparities is now one of the important tasks."

He continued, "Policy tasks that must be addressed with concentrated efforts starting early next year include overcoming the crisis of self-employed and small business owners who have become more difficult due to recent strengthened quarantine measures, employment measures for vulnerable groups, domestic demand stimulation measures behind export growth, livelihood measures such as inflation and real estate, and supply chain measures addressing the weakening of the global value chain (GVC)."

Regarding the employment market situation, he said, "Although the level before the COVID crisis has been restored, it is essential to actively respond to structural changes in the labor market caused by digital and technological innovation." He added, "To revitalize promising new jobs for the future, we plan to discover a total of 18 new occupations in five fields including culture, leisure, and environment, such as metaverse creators and content value appraisers, and support market settlement through the introduction of national qualifications and the development and operation of professional workforce training programs."

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