Extremely Impoverished Children to be Provided with Lunch During Vacation

Starting this winter vacation, About 251,000 students who are classified as extremely impoverished according to the National Basic Livelihood Security Act will be provided with lunch, even during vacation, by the government.

Also, about 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students who have great difficulty in paying tuition will be able to apply for student loans with interest as low as two percent annually. If this system is implemented, 10 percent of 300,000 students subjected to this system will be able to receive the benefit of low interest loans. Present student loans charge four percent interest to students and 4.5 percent to the government.

Under the responsibility of Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan, the government and the Uri Party held a high-ranking party-government policy coordination meeting on September 17 at the prime minister’s official residence in Seoul and decided on such measures to help the life of the humble classes and to establish general government plans for Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving Day).

The Uri Party and the government decided to postpone the suspension of electricity and gas services for the poor who do not pay their electricity and gas bills until September in consideration of Chuseok. For those subject to the National Basic Livelihood Security Act, they have decided to postpone the suspension even further, for six months, until March.

The Uri Party and the government will make government grain available to the poor for half price, and they will supply grain produced in 2003 at 19,130 won per 20 kg of burlap bag for three months, from this December to next February.

For small and medium businesses under financial difficulty, they will postpone repayment for public funds (assumed to be about 70 billion won) for up to six months.

The Uri Party and the government settled on other conveniences for the people during the Chuseok holiday, such as increasing the number of trains by 11 percent and express buses by 13 percent, and extended metropolitan area subway and long-distance bus operation times to 2:00 a.m. They have also decided to operate over 400 nationwide paramedic clinics for 24-hour emergency treatment and will operate an information system, the 1339 emergency medical information center.

Yong-Gwan Jung yongari@donga.com