Kang Kyung-sung, New 1st Vice Minister of Industry, "Focus on Stabilizing People's Livelihoods and Boosting Economic Vitality This Year"

Kang Kyung-sung, the newly appointed 1st Vice Minister of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, stated on the 11th, "This year, we will focus on stabilizing people’s livelihoods and boosting economic vitality."

In his inaugural speech, Vice Minister Kang said, "It is time to increase the speed and effectiveness of policy implementation with three key words in mind: exports, investment, and regional economy."

He expressed concern that although an economic recovery trend called the 'export plus transition' has been created, the external conditions surrounding the Korean economy remain challenging this year, diagnosing that "the warmth of economic recovery has not yet spread to every corner of the people’s lives, and the recovery of our economy’s dynamism is urgently needed."

Vice Minister Kang emphasized, "We will continue policies such as securing a super-gap capability, reforming killer regulations, and nurturing core talents so that our country can leap forward as a global hub for investment, technology, and manpower centered on advanced industries," adding, "We must expand digital transformation represented by eco-friendly and artificial intelligence (AI) autonomous manufacturing across the entire main manufacturing sector."

He continued, "We must establish economic security by operating a rapid response system to prepare for supply chain crises and by achieving self-reliance, diversification, and expanded stockpiling of key supply chain items that have high dependency on specific countries," and said, "We will expand large-scale local investments and create quality jobs to build a local era where warmth reaches every corner, and carefully manage policies for mid-sized enterprises, which are the core of the corporate growth ladder."