Government, Ruling & Opposition Party to Have Forum on Economy

Economic ministers and the ‘Economic experts’ of the ruling and oppositional party will hold a policy forum to examine the current economic policy on May 19th and 20th. They plan to stay overnight discussing problems and suggesting solutions for the economic policy.

Finance and Economy Deputy Prime Minister Jin Nyum, Budget & Planning Minister Jun Yoon-Chul and Financial Supervisory Service Chairman Lee Keun-Young will participate in the forum. Millennium Democratic Party (MDP)’s Chung Sae-Kyun, Kang Woon-Tae, Hong Jae-Hyung, and Park Byung-Yun, Grand National Party (GNP)’s Kim Man-Jae, Lee Sang-Deuk, Lee Kang-Doo, Lee Han-Ku, and Ahn Taek-Soo will also participate in the forum.

Hong Jae-Hyung (MDP) and Kim Man-Jae are the former Finance & Economy Deputy Prime Ministers. Kang Woon-Tae, Park Byung-Yun, Lee Sang-Deuk, and Lee Han-Ku are also known for their expertise in economy. The forum was at first planned to be held privately in Oak Valley Condominium (Woonju). However, it will move to a different place.

The subject of the forum has not yet been decided. Finance and Economy Deputy Prime Minister Jin Nyum, who proposed this forum to the members of the ruling and oppositional party in the National Assembly in April, said, ‘We plan to discuss all kinds of economy related issues regardless of our different political stand’. Nevertheless, the forum will focus on the core economic pending issues. It is most likely that economic diagnosis and prospect, supplementary budget bill plan, alleviation of regulation on large companies, national debt, public funds, and the management of Hyundai companies will be the main topics of discussion.

It is unclear as to how closely the government, both ruling and oppositional party, will come up with an agreement on the issues in this ‘Joint billet forum’.

Even with the government-ruling party and the oppositional party’s overnight discussion on the issues of Hyundai companies and national debt, it is unlikely that they will solve the issues overnight due to the fundamentally different perspective and mistrust. Three parties have different views on the supplementary budget bill. For instance, the ruling party wants to pass the bill as soon as possible, whereas the oppositional party is against this idea criticizing it as ‘Pork-barreling policy’. The economic ministry is debating on whether the supplementary budget bill is necessary or not.

At any rate, these ‘Economic experts’ endeavor to solve the problems are welcome.

Kwon Soon-Hwal shkwon@donga.com