[2024 Budget] Yoon "Boldly Cut Cartel Budget... Focus on Securing Growth Engines"

President Yoon Suk-yeol Discusses '2024 Budget Proposal' at Cabinet Meeting
Cartel Budget Cut by 23 Trillion Won... Support for Vulnerable, Rule of Law, Jobs
Exports and Future Industry Investment... Expanding Economic Foundation with Additional Deregulation

President Yoon Suk-yeol has significantly cut budgets related to interest cartels to firmly establish the principle of 'sound fiscal management' in next year's budget. This reflects the results of a comprehensive re-examination of all fiscal projects from the ground up, with the scale of expenditure restructuring reaching a total of 23 trillion won. The reduced budget will be redirected towards fostering future industry ecosystems such as space and bio industries aimed at export revitalization, welfare for the vulnerable, and job creation. In particular, there is a plan to actively engage in global official development assistance (ODA) for strategic regions including the Indo-Pacific, Africa, and Ukraine.

On the morning of the same day, President Yoon presided over a Cabinet meeting at the Yongsan Presidential Office and stated, "We have boldly cut the political subsidy budget and interest cartel budgets, carrying out a total expenditure restructuring of 23 trillion won," adding, "The secured funds will be intensively supported in three core areas: realizing genuine welfare for the vulnerable, strengthening the essential functions of the state such as defense and rule of law, and securing growth engines for creating quality jobs."

President Yoon Suk-yeol is presiding over a Cabinet meeting at the Presidential Office building in Yongsan, Seoul, on the 29th. Photo by Yonhap News

The 'austerity and sound' fiscal stance repeatedly emphasized by President Yoon that day is based on re-examining the validity and effectiveness of all fiscal projects from scratch to fundamentally block leakage factors. The so-called 'cartels' that divide interests are the target, and President Yoon has consistently stated, "We must thoroughly eradicate interest cartels. Interest cartels continuously plunder the people, and all public officials must neither fear nor ignore confronting them."

Accordingly, the government plans to closely examine cartel structures in specific industries to preemptively block budget leakages. This means reviewing the unfair gains of interest cartels such as monopolistic structures and government subsidy sharing from a zero base. The government has already judged the sharing of R&D (research and development) as a representative unfair gain of vested interests and has carried out a major adjustment of research budgets. The government plans to comprehensively review ongoing R&D projects, restructure projects that distribute funds indiscriminately or show poor performance, and consolidate 108 projects, with the reduced budget amounting to a total of 3.44 trillion won.

The budget secured by abolishing interest cartels will be redirected to budgets for export and future industry investments to focus on economic response. President Yoon said that day, "Exports are the foundation of our economy and the source of job creation," emphasizing, "The government will push the 'export drive strategy' even more strongly next year." To this end, export financing will be significantly supplied to support orders in the nuclear power, defense, and plant sectors, and a 2 trillion won Startup Korea Fund will be newly established to create a 'Korean-style Station F,' a free startup space for young entrepreneurs. This appears to be inspired by Station F, the 'Silicon Valley of Paris,' which President Yoon visited during his trip to Paris, France, last June.

Investment subsidies for foreign companies, returning companies, and companies relocating to local areas will also be doubled, focusing on advanced fields. The plan is to simultaneously implement deregulation and budget support to increase investment and broaden the economic base. President Yoon explained, "We will invest 4.4 trillion won in four areas: AI (artificial intelligence), bio, cybersecurity, and building a digital platform government," adding, "To prepare for supply chain instability, we will increase public stockpiles of key minerals such as lithium and rare earths by more than 40% to an average of 60 days' worth."

He also declared the promotion of strategic projects worth 2.5 trillion won to preoccupy future industry ecosystems such as bio and space. With the full-scale promotion of the so-called 'Boston-Korea Project,' a global R&D collaboration between our research institutions and Boston research institutions laid the groundwork during President Yoon's recent state visit to the United States, 1.8 trillion won will be invested in this global R&D cooperation.

Another notable point is the significant increase in support for developing countries. The ODA budget for economic and social development and welfare improvement in developing countries has been set at 6.5 trillion won, an increase of 2 trillion won from this year. ODA investment in strategic regions such as the Indo-Pacific and Africa, which are key to expanding global solidarity, will also be expanded from 1.4 trillion won to 2 trillion won. The increased ODA budget is a mid- to long-term investment to utilize for overseas expansion of Korean companies and youth. In addition, the budget related to increasing public trust regarding the Fukushima nuclear power plant contaminated water has also been significantly increased. A total of 740 billion won will be spent to establish a thorough safety monitoring system for our waters and seafood in response to the contaminated water discharge.

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