Choi Sang-mok "Small Business Measures to be Announced Next Month... Activation of REITs Real Estate Development"

Expansion of Healthcare and Data Centers... Government's 'Economic Relations Ministers' Meeting'

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Choi Sang-mok stated on the 17th, "To restore the economy felt by the public, we will prepare customized measures for small business owners by next month and implement them swiftly."

In his opening remarks at the Economic Ministers' Meeting that day, Deputy Prime Minister Choi said, "Since April, while the inflation rate has slowed and recovery trends are seen mainly in exports and manufacturing, the important thing is that ordinary citizens and small business owners fully experience the recovery trend."

He added, "The economic team will draw the bowstring toward the target of 'a warm economy for all,' and we will prepare support measures for vulnerable groups to be included in next year's budget proposal."

At the meeting, measures to revitalize foreign inbound tourism were discussed. Deputy Prime Minister Choi said, "We will increase unmanned immigration inspection gates available to cruise tourists and support preferential immigration inspection lanes for attendees of MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions) events such as corporate meetings."

To enhance the satisfaction of foreign tourists with things to enjoy, "we will expand the creation of tourism complexes that integrate lodging, leisure, and shopping by establishing a new type of ‘complex facility district’ within tourism complexes, and provide a mobile service for confirming duty-free goods export at Incheon Airport, Busan Port, and seven other regional airports," he said.

He then emphasized the innovation of killer regulations in the massive public procurement market worth 209 trillion won annually. Deputy Prime Minister Choi promised, "We will improve punitive sanctions that excessively restrict corporate activities, such as exempting responsibility when procurement contract obligations are violated due to natural disasters, and significantly raise the limit for private contracts for youth start-ups from the current 20 million won to 50 million won to support smooth entry into the procurement market."

To normalize the real estate project financing (PF) market, regulations will be significantly eased to allow multiple small investors to participate in REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) from the real estate development stage. To this end, the current REIT approval process, which takes more than a month and a half, will be changed to a registration system during the development stage and revert to the existing approval system only during the operation stage.

Deputy Prime Minister Choi said, "From the second half of this year, we will expand REIT investment targets to promising sectors such as healthcare and data centers, and stabilize the real estate market by purchasing auction crisis sites and unsold houses through REITs and converting them into rental housing."

He also announced a plan for the rapid supply of purchased rental housing in the second half of the year. Deputy Prime Minister Choi stated, "To alleviate the housing burden and anxiety over rental fraud for ordinary citizens, the government will purchase 120,000 houses and supply them as rental or monthly lease housing at prices lower than market value to the homeless." He added, "More than 70% will be concentrated in the metropolitan area to reflect the preferences of actual demanders as much as possible."