Lee Governor "Professor Shin's objective perception distorted due to malicious comments and malicious reports by conservative economic media, regrettable"
[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Lee Jae-myung, Governor of Gyeonggi Province, proposed a public debate to Professor Shin Se-don of Sookmyung Women's University’s Department of Economics, saying, "I would like to hear more of your reasoning regarding your criticism that local currency may be involved in corruption."
Governor Lee and Professor Shin appeared on a broadcast on the 26th, where they expressed differing views on distributing local currency as disaster basic income and engaged in a heated debate. Professor Shin was the economic teacher of former President Park Geun-hye. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from UCLA and currently oversees the economic policy of the main opposition party, the United Future Party.
On the 29th, Governor Lee wrote on Facebook, "I was grateful to meet Professor Shin Se-don on MBC’s 100-Minute Debate and exchange opinions," adding, "However, Professor Shin claimed that 'local currency will inevitably fail after one year and there is a risk of illegal circulation,' but perhaps due to lack of time, he did not provide substantial reasoning."
He continued, "As a result, Professor Shin’s claims sounded no different from the absurd rumors circulating in the market, such as 'Gyeonggi Province encourages illegal discounting with local currency' or 'there is a risk of corruption due to middlemen involvement.' Local currency in Gyeonggi Province exists in the form of paper certificates (gift certificates) and electronic currency such as cards or apps, with the choice of which to use left to the city or county, but almost all are used as electronic currency, functioning identically to cash cards," he explained.
He also stated, "Paper certificates are printed by the Korea Minting and Security Printing Corporation at production cost, and small and medium-sized merchants who receive them can exchange the full amount for cash at banks, making so-called illegal discounting (kkang) difficult to imagine. Electronic currency users pay a small agreed fee to the system operator and use the full amount like a debit card without any loss of funds, so corruption by middlemen is impossible," he argued.
Governor Lee further said, "Local currency has already been transparently and effectively used without any side effects or corruption for over five years in Seongnam City and Gyeonggi Province, as well as nationwide," adding, "I believe that objective perception and judgment have not been distorted by malicious false comments related to local currency and malicious reports by conservative economic media."
Finally, Governor Lee added, "If you acknowledge that the claim of 'possibility of corruption involvement' in the debate was wrong, please correct your statement. If you still hold the same claim, I would like to hear your reasoning fully, so I hope you will agree to one more public debate."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
