Gov't aims to address income disparities through job creation

5대 정부과제 더불어 잘사는 경제
Last week President Moon Jae-in laid out his government's policy blueprint for the next five years.
Over the course of this week, we've been taking a closer look at five main policy objectives contained within said blueprint.
In this report, our Kim Ji-yeon fills us in on the government's economic policies... dubbed "people-centered growth."
Under the so-called "income-led growth" strategy, the government pledged to address income disparities by boosting growth through job creation.
To do that, the government laid out a roadmap to increase the number of public servants by 810-thousand by 2022.
And its not just about the numbers, but also the quality of the jobs created, with the government saying they will try to reduce the average working hours, and turn irregular workers into full-time employees.
The government also plans to address the country's record-high youth unemployment... by increasing the required proportion of young people public agencies have to hire, from the current 3-percent to 5-percent.
In the private sector, the government will provide the salary of one employee if a small-and-medium-sized company hire three employees aged between 15 to 29.
Another aim is the promotion of a fairer economy and to reform the country's ownership structure, currently dominated by family-owned "chaebols" by allowing owners of subsidiary companies to sue the holding company's board of directors if they have committed illegal acts.
Second, boosting the voting rights of small shareholders so that they could cast their votes for a member of the board of directors as their delegate, someone they think could best represent them,... instead of being swayed by the chaebol family-member.
This on top of the government strengthening its monitoring of accounting fraud by increasing jail time for accounting offenses from the current five-to-seven years, to ten years... while removing the 1-point-8-million dollar cap on fines.
To improve consumer rights,... the government will also make it easier for consumers to pursue class-action lawsuits starting next year.
The government estimates that it needs a combined 37-point-8-billion dollars for the next five years to implement its economy-related policies alone... something that cannot be afforded solely by the execution of a 9-point-8-billion-dollar supplementary budget.
So it plans to cut unnecessary government spending and collect taxes under its new tax policy... due to be
unveiled next Wednesday.
It's speculated to include increases in corporate taxes and income taxes on the super-rich.
Kim Ji-yeon, Arirang News.

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