Roh Speech Tackles Domestic Issues

“The real estate market must be stabilized in order to restore the livelihood of ordinary citizens and strengthen corporate competitiveness,” President Roh Moo-hyun said on Monday. He went on to say, “The government will do its utmost and focus on relevant policies to solve housing problems.”

President Roh expressed his determination to stabilize real estate prices in an administrative policy speech which was read by Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook on behalf of President Roh Moo-hyun in regard to next year’s budget. President Roh suggested in the statement that he would reduce the prices of apartments in new cities, shorten the development periods of new cities to supply 300,000 new houses per year for residents in the Seoul metropolitan area, and reinforce supervision on housing loans.

“The government is reviewing a measure that would make an increased number of apartments publicize their building costs. I will also draw up a system which will make the increased disclosure of building costs contribute to an actual decrease in new apartment prices,” President Roh added.

In this regard, the government is planning to make even commercial apartments subject to the cost slicing system. The pricing system has been designed to determine the prices of new apartments by calculating the correlation between the cost of land and construction.

“The government will continue the Mountain Geumgang and Gaesong Industrial Complex projects in line with the intent and spirit of the U.N. Security Council’s resolutions,” President Roh stressed in regard to follow-up measures against North Korea’s nuclear weapons test.

In regard to the Free Trade Agreement between Korean and the U.S., President Roh said, “(The government) is drawing up additional supplementary measures for sectors such as agriculture which will face difficulties due to the opening of the market.”

In regard to the issue of non-regular workers, President Roh said, “As soon as the bill (addressing the problems of non-regular workers) passes, the government will establish a body which will correct discrimination against non-regular workers and strengthen the social safety net through the employment insurance and other measures to make the bill more effective.”

“The participatory government has only one more year to serve, but it will never cease to do its duty of administrating state affairs,” President Roh said.

jyw11@donga.com