'Sweet policies only, no reform in first year in office'

Former lawmaker Yu Seung-min [Yonhap]
Former lawmaker Yu Seung-min [Yonhap]

Former lawmaker Yu Seung-min said Thursday that the Honam semiconductor initiative was one of the worst policies pursued by President Lee Jae Myung and former policy chief Kim Yong-beom. Speaking on CBS Radio, Yu said the plan amounted to "not balanced regional development but the stoking of regional sentiment and a worsening of regionalism."

He also said the Lee government had squandered its political capital during its first year in office. "When approval ratings were high, the Lee government did not carry out reforms in pension, labor, welfare or education — it only pursued sweet policies," he said. "I don't think the Lee government has carried out a single reform."

Yu said the desire to develop semiconductor industries was not unique to the Honam region. "Yeongnam, Chungcheong and Gangwon Province all want to develop semiconductors," he said, adding that other regions were equally competitive — or even more so — in terms of power supply, land and water resources.

He questioned why both Samsung Electronics and SK hynix were being directed to concentrate 800 trillion won ($584 billion) in Gwangju. "Is this balanced regional development or unbalanced development? That needs to be examined," he said.

Turning to the government's budget proposal, Yu criticized what he described as reckless spending of windfall tax revenues from the semiconductor boom. "It feels like someone suddenly won the lottery, became rich overnight, and is just spending freely without thinking about tomorrow," he said.

Yu argued that the extra revenue should have been used to pay down debt. "What I cannot understand is that revenue has increased by more than 200 trillion won, yet debt has grown by more than 100 trillion won," he said. "At the very least, debt should have been frozen."

He also pointed to what he called a mismatch between the Bank of Korea's interest rate hikes and the Lee government's expansionary fiscal policy. "While the Bank of Korea is making efforts, if the government spends like this on the fiscal side, the Bank of Korea's efforts to rein in inflation and housing prices could come to nothing," he said.

Yu went on to say the opposition had little power to check the budget in the National Assembly. "The People Power Party has only 109 seats. Even combining the Reform Party and independents, there is no power to check this in the budget session," he said. "In this regular session of the National Assembly, we need to show that we can lead a major debate on national finances with a coherent argument."


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