GNP Lawmaker: “Roh Administration Should Awaken From 17 Illusions”

“The Roh Moo-hyun administration should awaken from 17 illusions.”

Lee Hahn-koo, a lawmaker of the opposition Grand National Party said yesterday, “The Roh administration has fallen into an identity crisis because it has wrongly implemented national politics based on 17 unreliable goals in eight sectors,” which was supported by materials on the nation’s economic conditions that Lee introduced.

In particular, Lee pointed out that while the Roh administration is falling into a daydream that an economic recovery will take place in near feature, the nation’s economic development rate remains below the world’s average for last two years and the price of commodities is 1.7 percent higher than that of advanced countries.”

Additionally, he indicated that the low-income family deficit rate in the first quarter of this year was 24.1 percent, which is an 8.7 percent increase from the rate in the nation’s previous financial crisis. He also added that despite such an income imbalance among classes, the Roh regime still maintains its obsession with distribution-oriented policy direction.

Lee also pointed out that even though the government has stressed the importance of the development of small- and middle-sized companies, the companies’ operation rates have fallen by five percent since Roh’s government came to office. In terms of the nation’s balanced development, the population rate in the capital and its adjacent areas this year has risen to 47.5 percent from 45.7 percent in 1997, which proves that its goals were nothing but an illusion.

Thus, Lee strongly argued, “The government should awaken from such illusions and take practical actions for real economic recovery such as the deregulation of conglomerates and the abolition of the Shareholding Restriction Limit System.”

Jung-Eun Lee lightee@donga.com