hankyoreh

President-elect Lee Myung-bak’s stated commitment to economic growth is likely to bring about a series of changes in the current structure of the government. The policy initiatives devised by the presidential transition team entail the revival of a policy planning and coordination organization, which was abolished in 1994 when Kim Young-sam was in power as the president of South Korea. The restructuring will give more direct authority to ministries related to the economy.

The new administration’s economic advisers have repeatedly emphasized the necessity of restructuring the government in this direction. Sagong Il, co-chairman of a special committee aimed at enhancing the nation’s competitiveness, has also made a point of targeting agencies related to the economy for reform. “As the goal of economic policy is to prioritize and allocate limited resources, it is necessary to strengthen the function of the government’s planning and coordinating structure,” he said. When asked if he had a concrete model for reorganizing the government, he replied that it would be necessary to benchmark advanced countries.

In the current system, the Ministry of Finance and Economy has the role of planning and controlling the nation’s economic affairs, but many experts note that the the goal of effective coordination is beyond its capacity given its reduced power and authority. When the ministry was reorganized in 1998, the functions of the previous organization were dispersed to Ministry of Planning & Budget, the Financial Supervisory Commission, the Bank of Korea and the Office for Government Policy Coordination.

The transition team is reportedly considering the creation of a finance ministry which will supervise and coordinate economic policies, as previous finance ministries have done.

The Hansun Foundation for Freedom and Prosperity, a conservative think tank, is advocating a plan to create a new agency, the “National Strategic and Planning Agency,” which would take charge of the job being done by the existing Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Planning & Budget. Uner the plan, the new agency would be led by a vice-premier level official. The new ministry appears as though it will be similar to the previous Economic Planning Board, which had been a prime driving force in South Korea’s economic boom of the 1970s and 1980s.

Regarding this, Heo Chan-guk, an official of Korea Economic Research Institute, said, “It is necessary to strengthen supervisory functions to enhance the efficiency of economic policies. The ‘dinosaur ministries’ of the past, however, can weaken efficiency due to an excessive centralization of power.”

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