South Korea Seeks To Expand Support For Employment At Smaller Firms

Fahad Shabbir (@FahadShabbir) Published April 02, 2018 | 05:59 PM

Senior officials from the government and ruling party agreed Monday to expand a program of subsidizing smaller firms and their employees as part of efforts to create new jobs for young people.

SEOUL, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Apr, 2018 ) :Senior officials from the government and ruling party agreed Monday to expand a program of subsidizing smaller firms and their employees as part of efforts to create new jobs for young people.

During a policy coordination meeting, Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon reiterated the government's plans to offer income tax exemptions for new hires at small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), strengthen state support for firms with new recruits and provide assistance to venture start ups.

The government and the Democratic Party agreed at the meeting to expand a range of proposed support measures for SMEs. Such state support was initially supposed to benefit only new employees, but the officials agreed to extend them to some existing staff in the name of fairness among the workers.

"(The government) will mobilize all policy means such as tax incentives, regulatory reform and an increased budget (to help create jobs for young people)," Kim said during a policy coordination meeting with the ruling Democratic Party.

Touching on Gunsan and other cities that have been affected by the crisis in the shipbuilding industry, Kim said that the government will seek to help them attract other businesses and foster tourism, as well as providing them with tax benefits or financial support.

Also at the meeting, the ruling bloc redoubled their calls for the parliamentary passage of the proposal for an increase to the budget of 4 trillion won (US$3.75 billion) that the government plans to submit on Friday.

"There is a lot of worry, as there has not been any meaningful improvement in the efforts to create jobs for young people despite the overall economic recovery," Woo Won-shik, the party's floor leader, said. "We should not hesitate to inject new funds in addition to the existing budget."