Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Koo Yun-cheol speaks at a meeting of the Emergency Economic Headquarters and the Economic and Structural Innovation ministerial conference held Thursday morning at Government Complex Seoul in Jongno-gu, Seoul. [Yonhap]
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Koo Yun-cheol speaks at a meeting of the Emergency Economic Headquarters and the Economic and Structural Innovation ministerial conference held Thursday morning at Government Complex Seoul in Jongno-gu, Seoul. [Yonhap]

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Koo Yun-cheol said Thursday that the government would soon announce its plan to reform the basic and retirement pension systems.

Koo made the announcement while presiding over a joint meeting of the Emergency Economic Headquarters and the Economic and Structural Innovation ministerial conference at Government Complex Seoul. "The government will spare no effort in structural economic reform to reverse the decline in potential growth and achieve growth for all," he said.

Related ministries are discussing how to restructure the basic pension, which provides monthly payments to people aged 65 and older in the bottom 70 percent of the income bracket.

Minister of Planning and Budget Park Hong-keun had earlier laid out the guiding principle: reform the system along a "give more to those with less" model — reducing pension payments to better-off recipients and increasing them for those in greater need — using the standard median income as the benchmark.

At Thursday's meeting, Koo said the government would draw up a "safety net reinforcement plan" in the second half of the year to ease financial and livelihood anxieties among vulnerable groups. He added that the government would develop tailored reform measures to close gaps in asset ownership, income, employment, generational equity and regional development so that the benefits of growth could be shared by all.

"We will fundamentally strengthen the competitiveness of our industries so that innovative sectors — a second or third semiconductor industry — can emerge," he said. He added that the government would sequentially develop, announce and implement industrial upgrading plans for key sectors such as steel and petrochemicals, including AI-driven manufacturing process innovation and shifts toward higher value-added production.

The government is also set to unveil a youth employment package shortly. It is expected to include an expanded support system covering every stage of employment and economic activity — from job searching and recruitment to entry and career growth — as well as a platform to match young people with actual job openings.

Koo said the government would train more than 200,000 specialists in advanced and high-demand fields such as AI by 2030, while expanding private- and public-sector employment and fostering young entrepreneurs. Through these efforts, he said, the government aims to create more than 300,000 jobs and new businesses combined.

Koo also pushed back against recent foreign media reports raising concerns about the South Korean stock market. "The Korean economy is more solid than ever and is posting unprecedented results," he said. "Both real-economy and macroeconomic indicators — including growth, exports, prices, and consumer and business sentiment indexes — continue to show robust momentum."

He added that the government was responding swiftly to reduce stock market volatility and that share price indexes had recently shown signs of stabilizing. "We will continue working to structurally improve the health of capital markets and nurture new industries, making Korea an ever more trustworthy destination for investment," he said.

Bloomberg recently addressed volatility in the South Korean stock market in a column headlined "South Korea is Becoming Uninvestable, Too."


oskymoon@heraldcorp.com