Minister of Planning and Budget Park Hong-keun delivers opening remarks at the seventh expanded senior staff meeting of the Ministry of Planning and Budget, held Thursday morning at Government Complex Sejong. [Ministry of Planning and Budget]
Minister of Planning and Budget Park Hong-keun delivers opening remarks at the seventh expanded senior staff meeting of the Ministry of Planning and Budget, held Thursday morning at Government Complex Sejong. [Ministry of Planning and Budget]

Minister of Planning and Budget Park Hong-keun has named "results and action" the defining keywords for the second half of the year, urging his ministry to accelerate work on next year's budget proposal and a medium-to-long-term national development strategy.

He also called on officials to engage proactively with stakeholders — including the public, the National Assembly and outside experts — throughout the budget and policy process, and to move swiftly on related legislation.

Park made the remarks Thursday at the seventh expanded senior staff meeting at Government Complex Sejong. "Now that we have entered the second half of the year, it is time to put into practice the tasks we have been planning," he said.

Park said the ministry would seek out the views of the National Assembly and political parties even as budget drafting is underway, and would move quickly to engage with the ninth round of directly elected local governments, whose terms began in July.

He also directed officials to broaden public consultation through online platforms as the long-term national development strategy takes shape, and to actively incorporate proposals from young people as the generation that will inherit the future.

In addition, Park urged the ministry to step up advance consultations with National Assembly standing committees on priority bills — including legislation on a public-interest whistleblower incentive fund and a voluntary carbon market — to speed their passage.

He further instructed staff to develop more detailed implementation plans for high-priority or technically complex policy tasks and to move quickly on their execution.

Before the meeting, Park presided over an appointment ceremony for his new policy adviser and presented certificates and commendation plaques to model civil servants, long-serving employees and newly promoted officials, while also recognizing civil servants who had demonstrated exemplary proactive service and those working in high-demand divisions.

He praised staff who had worked hard on recent pressing matters — including a plenary session of the National Assembly's fiscal and economic affairs committee, a youth policy expert forum, a national fiscal strategy conference and departmental briefings — and asked senior officials to lead by example in encouraging their teams to take summer leave. "Please take the initiative in urging your staff to use their summer vacation so they can recharge," he said.


fact0514@heraldcorp.com