The 1st Bill of the 21st National Assembly: "To Prevent Disasters like Sewol, Prioritize Social Value over Competition"

On the 29th, ahead of the opening of the 21st National Assembly, a staff member from Representative Park Kwang-on's office is waiting in the hallway in front of the National Assembly's Legislative Affairs Department to submit the first bill of the 21st National Assembly. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Cheol-eung] On the morning of the 1st at 9 a.m., Park Kwang-on, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, announced that he submitted the "Social Value Act (Basic Act on the Realization of Social Value by Public Institutions)" to the Legislative Affairs Office of the National Assembly Main Building. It is the first bill of the 21st National Assembly.

The bill was originally introduced by President Moon Jae-in when he was a member of the 19th National Assembly but was automatically discarded due to the expiration of the term. It was reintroduced in the 20th National Assembly by members Kim Kyung-soo and Park Kwang-on with supplementary content but failed to pass.

Park said, "After the 1997 financial crisis, during the restructuring of the public sector, the neoliberal public institution management model called 'New Public Management' (NPM) emerged, increasing pressure for market liberalization. As a result, some of the nation's key industries were privatized. We have already confirmed through painful cases that a competition-first approach is unsustainable. Disasters such as the Sewol ferry tragedy, the Icheon fire, the Guui Station accident, the collapse of the Seongsu Bridge, and the collapse of the Sampoong Department Store were tragedies caused by the erosion of publicness and reckless pursuit of profit."

Accordingly, the bill proposes detailed items as values that can contribute to the public interest and community development in areas such as society, economy, environment, and culture. These include "protection of human rights as fundamental rights that maintain human dignity," "guarantee of basic rights protected by the Constitution such as the right to pursue happiness, equality, the right to know, freedom of occupation, and stable housing," and "maintenance of safe labor and living environments from disasters and accidents."

The bill includes provisions for the Minister of Strategy and Finance to establish a basic plan for the realization of social value every five years in consultation with heads of related public institutions. It also includes the establishment of a Social Value Committee under the President.