President Lee Jae-myung on Tuesday ordered officials to devise ways to expand the "Culture and Arts Pass," which subsidizes the cost of attending performances, exhibitions, and films, and to explore how it could be applied to other policies.
"Draw up plans for expanding it and for applying and adapting it to other policies," Lee said during a senior secretaries meeting held at the Blue House that day, according to Presidential Chief Spokesperson Kang Yu-jung. After hearing a report from the Economic Growth Integration Secretariat, Lee emphasized the importance of the opinion-gathering process, saying, "We must listen to diverse voices in order to prepare policies that young people can actually feel."
According to Kang, when Youth Affairs Officer Lee Joo-hyung reported that "young people's perceived benefit and satisfaction with the 'Culture and Arts Pass' are high," the president asked about the age of eligible recipients, usage conditions, the application environment, application requirements, and the budget scale, before giving the instruction.
Lee also received a report from Fiscal Planning Adviser Ryu Deok-hyun on "measures to reform unemployment benefits and stabilize employment insurance finances," again stressing that "it is important to sufficiently gather the opinions of all stakeholders during the policy implementation process." He added, "It is desirable for policies to be established through a process of opinion-gathering and public deliberation," and instructed, "For example, quickly prepare a plan to institutionalize a body for gathering the opinions of citizens and the public with the character of a citizen assembly, so that gathering public opinion becomes settled into the process ahead of all policy decisions."
Regarding the "three mega-projects," under which large-scale investments were announced centered on Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, Lee said they were "not simply support for the regions, but a decision for Korea to leap forward as an industrial powerhouse with a super-gap lead." He stressed, "This will become the 'third stepping stone' for Korea's growth, following the Park Chung-hee administration's fostering of heavy and chemical industries and the Kim Dae-jung administration's leap into an IT powerhouse."
He added, "We must go beyond a growth structure centered on the metropolitan area and diversify the axis of growth across the entire country into multiple poles, turning the whole nation into a 'Korean Silicon Valley,'" and urged, "The Blue House and government ministries should pick up the pace in organizing related policies and legislation, providing budget support, and pursuing follow-up investment plans."
He further instructed that officials "must approach policy responses with the attitude that the success or failure of state affairs depends on securing future growth engines while also easing polarization," saying, "We must devote all our efforts to strengthening the basic social safety net, creating a fair labor market, revitalizing the neighborhood economy, and building an asset ladder for everyone." In particular, he added, "We must also do everything possible to efficiently utilize additional tax revenue to create stable investment resources for future generations."
