Governor Kim Dong-yeon Holds Emergency Economic Inspection Meeting Ahead of Seollal... Oversees 5 Major Livelihood Projects

Gyeonggi Province Governor Kim Dong-yeon is presiding over an emergency economic inspection meeting ahead of the Lunar New Year. Photo by Gyeonggi Provincial Government

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Kim Dong-yeon, Governor of Gyeonggi Province, ordered the preparation of measures ahead of the Lunar New Year, stating, "We must proactively and meticulously respond to vulnerable groups who are the first to suffer when the economy is difficult."

Accordingly, Gyeonggi Province will promote provincial-level measures this year in five areas of public livelihood: vulnerable groups, youth, real estate, employment, and small business owners and SMEs.

On the 16th, Governor Kim held an emergency economic inspection meeting to welcome the new year at the Gyeonggi Provincial Government Office with economic experts including officials from the Bank of Korea and the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy to discuss measures to respond to the livelihood economy according to economic crisis trends.

At the meeting, Governor Kim said, "Many forecasts predict difficulties when looking at macroeconomic indicators such as economic growth rate, export decline rate, and interest rates, but when visiting the field from a micro perspective and talking with residents, there are livelihood issues that are felt firsthand," adding, "While macro indicators are important, I cannot help but worry about how urgent and serious the actual living conditions of our residents are."

He continued, "There are problems with the central government's macroeconomic stabilization measures, but I am more concerned that there seem to be bigger issues in terms of (microeconomic measures) embracing vulnerable groups and tightening the social safety net," he added.

He then emphasized, "I hope that at least Gyeonggi Province can prepare proactive measures to care for public livelihood and closely support vulnerable groups to give hope to residents," and "If necessary, I would like us to prepare more active fiscal policies or field-oriented policies together with the Job Foundation or Welfare Foundation."

At the emergency economic inspection meeting, along with Gong Cheol, Head of the Bank of Korea Gyeonggi Headquarters, and Yoon Sang-ha, Head of the International Macroeconomics Team at the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy, heads of public institutions under Gyeonggi Province such as Chae I-bae, CEO of the Gyeonggi Job Foundation, and Won Mi-jung, CEO of the Gyeonggi Welfare Foundation, also participated.

Gong Cheol, Head of the Gyeonggi Headquarters, forecasted that due to overlapping shocks such as global monetary tightening and high inflation, regional economic growth is expected to slow down until the first half of this year.

Yoon Sang-ha diagnosed the situation as a complex entanglement of various crisis factors such as geopolitical risks and supply chain disruptions, advising that local governments must protect vulnerable groups while not missing new growth engines such as digital transformation.

Accordingly, the province decided to continuously monitor regional economic trends through related organizations such as the Bank of Korea and to make every effort to restore the livelihood economy experiencing crisis.

First, in response to the government's reduction of public-type senior job support, the province increased its own budget to expand about 10,000 senior jobs and proactively support vulnerable groups. In particular, following last year's support of 400 billion KRW in special credit guarantees for small business owners and self-employed persons, the province will continue this project this year. In addition, 36.6 billion KRW will be invested to promote economic activities for the disabled through support projects.

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