Choo Kyung-ho "Early Support for Youth Jobs at the Stages of Enrollment, Employment, and Job Seeking"

Emergency Economic Ministers' Meeting and Export Investment Countermeasures Meeting

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Choo Kyung-ho stated on the 15th, "We will strengthen early support and proactive responses at each stage of 'enrollment-employment-job seeking' so that young people can find the jobs they want."

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Choo Kyung-ho is speaking about price stabilization at the Emergency Economic Ministers' Meeting and Export Investment Measures Meeting held at the Government Seoul Office in Jongno-gu, Seoul on the 15th. Photo by Jo Yong-jun jun21@

At the emergency economic ministers' meeting and export investment countermeasures meeting held at the government Seoul office that morning, Deputy Prime Minister Choo said, "Some young people are still struggling to find the jobs they want or remain outside the labor market, so active measures are necessary."

In response, the government unveiled the 'Measures to Promote Youth Labor Market Entry' and announced support measures for young people who are not actively seeking jobs, referred to as 'resting' youth, to help them return to the labor market. Deputy Prime Minister Choo explained, "We will significantly expand the number of youth interns in the private and public sectors during the enrollment stage preparing for employment from 48,000 this year to 74,000 next year, and introduce customized employment support services for non-college-bound high school students."

He added, "During the employment stage, we will establish an ‘onboarding program’ to help young people who have successfully found jobs adapt well to their workplace," and "We plan to support the spread of a workplace culture that balances work and life." The government will also launch a ‘Youth Growth Project’ to support self-help groups and psychological counseling to encourage continuous job-seeking challenges during the job-seeking stage such as reemployment, and strengthen the ‘Youth Challenge Support Project’ to restore job-seeking confidence.

Deputy Prime Minister Choo explained, "To support the independence and social activities of vulnerable youth facing difficulties in employment due to family environment, illness, disability, and other factors, we will actively implement various specialized programs such as providing self-care allowances for family care youth and establishing support projects for isolated and withdrawn youth."

Regarding employment indicators, he said, "As of October, the employment rate reached a record high of 63.3%, the unemployment rate hit a record low of 2.1%, and the number of employed persons increased by 346,000, marking the third consecutive month of expanding growth," adding, "The proportion of regular workers reached a record high of 56.5% as of October, indicating continuous improvement in employment centered on stable jobs."

Approximately KRW 710 billion Invested by 2028 to Secure Future Super-gap Technologies

Along with expanding employment support for youth, efforts will be made to strengthen the competitiveness of key industries.

Deputy Prime Minister Choo said, "To secure leadership in the next-generation shipbuilding market such as eco-friendly ships and autonomous ships, we will actively promote the 'K-Shipbuilding Industry Next-Generation Leading Strategy,'" and "The government plans to invest approximately KRW 710 billion by 2028 to secure future super-gap technologies and advance manufacturing systems."

He also pledged, "Next year, we will establish future talent training centers in Pangyo and Geoje to train more than 1,000 technical talents annually and secure over 2,000 domestic production workers annually through recruitment-linked education," and "We will significantly increase financial support for medium-sized shipbuilders, including doubling the limit of the Korea Trade Insurance Corporation's advance payment refund guarantee (RG) special guarantee to KRW 400 billion next year compared to this year."

He further added, "We will also strengthen support for win-win cooperation by providing incentives to large and mid-sized shipbuilders supporting the eco-friendly and digital transition of small and medium shipbuilders."

Establishing an Eco-friendly Ship Fuel Industry Ecosystem

He emphasized the establishment of an eco-friendly ship fuel industry ecosystem to respond to the eco-friendly transition of the shipbuilding and shipping markets.

Deputy Prime Minister Choo said, "We will designate Ulsan Port as a hub port for eco-friendly fuel supply and create a market foundation by having the public sector proactively supply more than 25% of domestic demand for eco-friendly ship fuels such as liquefied natural gas (LNG) and methanol by 2027," and "we will actively induce private investment through the establishment of a KRW 1 trillion eco-friendly ship fuel infrastructure fund and investment and payment guarantees provided by the Korea Ocean Business Corporation."

The government will also pursue regulatory reforms, including easing regulations related to ship fuel injection methods and procedures to match eco-friendly fuels and preparing specialized safety guidelines.

Accelerating the Transition to a Data Economy

The government plans to accelerate the transition to a data economy to promote new industry development and enhance everyday convenience.

Deputy Prime Minister Choo explained, "Since video data utilization is important for developing services such as autonomous vehicles and mobile robots, we will implement a regulatory sandbox demonstration exemption allowing the use of original video data starting this month," adding, "However, we will thoroughly establish safety measures such as encryption to prevent personal information infringement."

He continued, "We will create a ‘High-Precision Map Data Platform’ and an ‘AI Learning Data Brokerage Platform’ where the private sector can trade high-quality data, fostering a private-led data trading ecosystem, and to activate the use of genetic data, we will gradually expand the scope of direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing from health management to disease-related items."

The government plans to support the rapid development of digital healthcare services by promoting a medical MyData pilot project from next year ahead of the full implementation of the MyData system in January 2025.

Finally, Deputy Prime Minister Choo urged the prompt re-legislation of the Act on the Promotion of Corporate Restructuring. He said, "Since the Act on the Promotion of Corporate Restructuring expired last October, the workout, a normalization measure, has disappeared despite temporary management crises, causing missed opportunities for effective restructuring and increasing concerns about the spread of insolvency to small and medium subcontractors," and requested, "We ask for the National Assembly's cooperation to promptly re-legislate the Act to support the swift normalization of companies."

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