Government Spends Public Funds To Boost Economy

The government decided to spend the public fund including the national housing fund during the third quarter (July ~ September) at the earliest. The government also decided to encourage the state-run companies to invest on construction project as early as possible.

At the economic policy adjustment conference presided by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and Economy (MFE) Jin Nyum, held at the Kwacheon Government Building yesterday afternoon, the government announced a plan to boost domestic economy.

An official of the MFE said, ``The government has prepared a limited measure to boost domestic consummation because the economic crisis of the Central and Latin America may badly influence on domestic economy.

At the conference, the government arranged the IT (Information Technology) related business fields as well, which brought on a controversy due to the overlapped domains among ministries.

# Plan to boost domestic economy and export = The government decided to consume the national housing fund, the IT boost fund, the small-mid-sized enterprises inauguration and promotion fund, and agriculture safety fund during the third quarter. Some projects of the funds, originally planed for next year, will be pushed forward from this year.

And the facility investment made by the state-run enterprise, the Korea Gas Corporation, and other construction projects, planned by the Korea Land Corporation, the Korea National Housing Corporation, the Korea Freeway Corporation, and the Korea Water Resource Corporation, will be begin earlier than originally planed, and the scale of investment will also increased.

To boost the economy, the national annuity fund will also be mobilized. The government decided to revised related laws to expand the possible investment range of the annuity fund from stocks and bonds to real estates, the Social Overhead Capital (SOC), and private investment. At the same time, the government is to lower the interest rate for the industry foundation fund and the small-mid-sized enterprises promotion fund. When a company contracts an abroad construction project, 15 percent of the contracted amount will be provided as an investiture fee. By the end of September, a state-civilian joint research group will also be established to provide development plans in 9 service business fields, including retail-wholesale business, circulation, culture and entertainment business etc..

# Arrangement on IT business domains among ministries = Among IT related policy, the e-business policy will be supervised by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy (MCIE). The IT human resources development policy will be managed by the Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC). For the Post PC business, the MIC will be in charge of the terminal division, such as the Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) and the mobile computer. General parts development policy will be administered by the MCIE.

The e-book industry, and technology development and human resources development policy for the animation industry, will be managed by the MIC. For the game industry, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism will take on the content and the human resources development. The MCIE will take part in the home-game module business and construction of the factory district. And the MIC will undertake the on-line and PC game business. However, some are criticizing on the arrangement saying, ``Considering the inadequacy of current government organization, the arrangement has been carried out in a form of a mere distribution among ministries, ignoring the meaning of the arrangement, which is basically to increase the competitiveness of the IT industry.``

yhchoi65@donga.com