Rep. Park Hong-geun of the Democratic Party of Korea, nominated as the inaugural Minister of Planning and Budget under the Lee Jae-myung administration, said Thursday that decisions on supplementary budget compilation would be made "through comprehensive consultations among government ministries."
"The national budget is not a magic pot of gold," Park said regarding fiscal policy direction, emphasizing efficiency and enhanced strategic functions.
"The budget, funded by taxpayers' money, must be allocated where it is needed most, and non-essential spending must be boldly restructured," Park told reporters at his confirmation hearing preparation office at the Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation in Jung-gu, Seoul. "The core role of the Ministry of Planning and Budget is to generate optimal, high efficiency."
Park defined the ministry's status as a national strategy control tower rather than a simple budget-compiling agency. "We must design a future strategy looking 30 years ahead for South Korea," he said, pledging to comprehensively address structural challenges including low growth, demographic cliff, climate crisis, regional decline, and polarization.
On this year's budget direction, he said decisions would be made through comprehensive consideration of government policy priorities and mid- to long-term fiscal strategy. Regarding long-term growth strategy, he mentioned securing growth engines through the creation of hyper-innovation industrial clusters in artificial intelligence and robotics, emphasizing that "expanding the economic scale determines fiscal sustainability."
Park also stressed the need for bipartisan cooperation in fiscal management. He pledged to uphold the principles of fiscal democracy, citing bipartisan fiscal cooperation and respect for the National Assembly's deliberation authority.
He said he would prioritize stabilizing the ministry, which had been without a head for two months, while focusing on next year's budget compilation starting later this month and preparations for the National Fiscal Strategy Meeting in May. Park also expressed his intention to explain fiscal policies and vision at a level accessible to the public during the confirmation hearing process.