'Set to Launch' Planning and Budget Office to Have Three Director-Generals... Emphasizing Planning Capabilities [Government in]

Three-Division Structure: Budget, Planning and Coordination, and Future Strategy and Planning (Tentative Name)
Concerns Over Functional Overlap with the Ministry of Economy and Finance

The organizational blueprint for the Planning and Budget Office, which will be launched next year as a separate entity from the Ministry of Economy and Finance, is becoming more concrete. The Planning and Budget Office is expected to have three first-grade positions, including the Director General for Future Strategy Planning (tentative title), and will focus on strengthening its capabilities in mid- to long-term policy planning.

Lim Gi-geun, Second Vice Minister of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, is responding to lawmakers' questions at the plenary session of the Planning and Finance Committee held at the National Assembly on September 8, 2025. Photo by Kim Hyunmin

According to relevant government agencies on the 13th, the newly established Planning and Budget Office is in discussions with the Ministry of the Interior and Safety to set up three first-grade director-level units: the Budget Office Director, the Planning and Coordination Office Director, and the Director General for Future Strategy Planning (tentative title). The main point is to elevate the current Future Strategy Bureau, which is at the bureau level within the Ministry of Economy and Finance, to a "Future Strategy Planning Office," thereby enhancing its long-term strategic functions. In addition, regarding the Fiscal Policy Bureau and the Fiscal Management Bureau, which are currently under the jurisdiction of the Fiscal Management Officer (first-grade), there is a proposal to absorb the Fiscal Policy Bureau into the Future Strategy Planning Office, while the Fiscal Management Bureau would remain as a separate bureau. This is because the Fiscal Policy Bureau handles fiscal analysis, such as national debt figures and fiscal soundness, which are closely related to the country's future strategy. The Fiscal Management Bureau is responsible for evaluating fiscal performance, as well as managing private investment and preliminary feasibility studies.

This shift reflects the intention for the Planning and Budget Office to move beyond being a department focused solely on budget execution, and to become a "planning-oriented department" that designs national strategies. According to the new Government Organization Act, the Planning and Budget Office, which will be newly established under the Prime Minister, will oversee budget formulation, fiscal policy and management, and the establishment of mid- to long-term national development strategies to respond to changes in future society. The goal is to empower the office to produce long-term strategies, such as the "Vision 2030" initiative designed and promoted by the Ministry of Planning and Budget during the Roh Moo-hyun administration.

The newly formed Future Strategy Planning Office will be responsible for overall planning of mid- to long-term national agendas, such as polarization, ultra-low birth rates, demographic changes, and the transition to artificial intelligence (AI). In this sense, it aims to serve as a "strategic control tower" for addressing mid- to long-term economic and social structural challenges. However, since some of these functions may overlap with the policy planning organizations currently managed by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, competition and coordination issues regarding planning functions between the two departments are likely to arise.

Within the Planning and Budget Office, there has long been a tendency to refer to itself as the "Planning Office." There is a strong commitment to expanding and absorbing long-term strategic planning functions, leveraging its budgetary authority. Lim Gigeun, Second Vice Minister of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, held a meeting in Sejong last October with staff members from the offices and bureaus that will be incorporated into the new Planning and Budget Office, stating, "The abbreviation for the Planning and Budget Office will be 'Planning Office.'"

With the restructuring of economic ministries, competition for planning and strategic capabilities among departments is expected to intensify. Some predict that even if the Planning and Budget Office initially focuses on long-term strategy functions, over time, it will naturally expand its policy functions based on its budgetary power. An official remaining at the Ministry of Economy and Finance remarked, "Although the Planning and Budget Office says it will be limited to long-term strategy, in the end, it will inevitably take on some planning functions, such as persuading and coordinating other departments. If the department holding the budget also takes charge of the national long-term strategy, its policy influence will inevitably grow." In this case, the structure and role of the office may ultimately revert to something similar to the former Economic Planning Board (1961-1994).