Government Holds First Steering Committee Meeting on Addressing Polarization; Key Measures to Be Included in Next Year's Growth Strategy

Working groups to meet weekly; steering committee at least twice a month
Priority issues to be discussed separately at economic issues meetings

Deputy Minister of Finance and Economy Kwon Daeyoung speaks at the first meeting of the Task Force on Addressing Polarization, held at the Seoul Government Complex in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on the 12th. Ministry of Finance and Economy.

The government has launched the steering committee of a task force on addressing polarization and begun in earnest to identify measures to close gaps in five key areas: labor, industry, regions, generations and society. It plans to hold working group meetings every week and steering committee meetings at least twice a month to strengthen the implementation of policies to reduce these gaps.

The Ministry of Finance and Economy said that Kwon Daeyeong, First Vice Minister of Finance and Economy, and Hyun Suyeop, First Vice Minister of Health and Welfare, held the first meeting of the steering committee of the Task Force on Addressing Polarization with relevant government ministries and agencies at the Government Complex Seoul on the morning of November 12.

Just one day after announcing its “Direction for Addressing Polarization” at an emergency meeting of economy-related ministers the previous day, the government immediately launched the steering committee and began work in earnest to identify measures.

The first meeting was attended by the Blue House’s secretaries for growth and the economy and for health and welfare, vice ministers from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the Ministry of Employment and Labor, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, the Ministry of Planning and Budget, and the Financial Services Commission, as well as the secretary-general of the National Research Council for Economics, Humanities and Social Sciences.

The task force will be led by Lee Hyeongil, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and Economy, who will review relevant policy measures. To provide working-level support for the government’s response to polarization, the ministry will form a “Polarization Mitigation Response Team” and expand and reorganize its “People’s Livelihood Stabilization Support Unit” into a “Polarization Mitigation Support Unit” (tentative name).

The steering committee will set the task force’s overall direction, oversee and coordinate its work, including the operation of five working groups, and monitor and manage the progress of the three key livelihood projects on housing, jobs and financial services for ordinary people.

At the meeting, participants discussed operating plans for the working groups in each of the five areas. Going forward, the working groups will meet weekly, while the steering committee will meet at least twice a month. The results of the meetings will also be made public. Matters requiring focused coordination among ministries will be discussed separately at economic issues meetings.

Each working group will identify key measures for its respective area and report them to the task force for discussion. Measures agreed upon by the ministries within this year will be included in the “2027 Economic Growth Strategy,” which is scheduled to be announced before the end of the year.

Vice Minister Kwon said that in 2025, the wage ratio of nonregular workers to regular employees at large companies fell to around 61%, while the elderly poverty rate reached 2.7 times the OECD average. He also warned that the transition to and spread of AI could deepen K-shaped polarization. “To address this, we will concentrate government-wide efforts on providing a focused package of fiscal, tax, financial and regulatory improvement measures; identifying projects that people can feel the impact of; and developing successful models for wider adoption,” he said.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.