GNP Giving Priority to Economic Stability over Ideological Offensives

The Grand National Party (GNP) has decided to put its energy into economic recovery, leaving aside the debate over national identity.

The decision came at a time when public opinion started calling for both ruling and opposition parties to account for the current economic woes, and the debate over national identity has degenerated into political squabbling.

“We will cooperate with the government and the ruling party on economic issues to help the Korean people see a ray of hope,” said GNP Chairwoman Park Geun-hye during a meeting on Friday morning. “We will announce our economic policies and urge the implementation of them.”

During the meeting, however, the chairwoman criticized the government’s economic policies, saying that mistrust of the government policies hinders investment and that the government can’t bulldoze businesses into investment. After all, she indicated that the GNP would continue its offensives in policies concerning people’s welfare and national identity. “We will draw up concrete measure led by Chairwoman Park, rather than involving ourselves in abstract ideological offensives,” GNP spokesperson Im Tae-hee said.

The GNP came up with policy suggestions to the government and the ruling party on the current economic situation after the meeting.

“The Korean economy is not faced with a cyclical recession; it is on the brink of falling into economic recession due to sagging growth potential. Korea may be trapped in a long economic recession, which would be different from Japan’s decade-long recession,” said Yu Seung-min, Chairman of the Third Policy Coordinating Committee of the GNP, at the briefing after the meeting. He said that short-term economic measures, such as expanding government spending, are not enough to address the current problems. He suggested limited tax cuts and freezes on public utility charges.

The GNP also requested an end to the government’s intervention in the foreign exchange market, a 10 percent cut on power rates and mobile phone fees, policies for youth unemployment, and coordination of the current real estate policies, such as improving the so-called housing trade report system. The spokesperson said that the GNP would meet with other opposition parties to discuss the current economic issues and ways of cooperation.

Meanwhile, the Uri Party will promote a policy that intends to cut the interest rate of Small Business Corporation (SBC) loans by one percent.

“We are consulting with the government to lower the interest rate of SBC loans by one percent from the current four to 5.9 percent, which is in line with the recent cut in call rates,” said Ahn Byeong-yeop, Chairman of Second Policy Coordinating Committee of Uri Party, at the meeting with traders, held at World Trade Center in Samsung-dong on Friday.

Seung-Heon Lee ddr@donga.com