Choi Sang-mok "Cannot Agree Intellectually... Difficult to Judge by Amount Alone"
Ruling Party Urges Support for Small Business Owners and Small-scale Manufacturers
The National Assembly has begun reviewing the budget proposals for economic ministries. The opposition party pointed out that although the government's research and development (R&D) budget has increased, it is concentrated in specific areas such as small modular reactors (SMR). The government argued that the R&D budget had increased sharply, requiring a process of adjustment, and that budgets for various fields, including support for young scientists, were increased.
On the 11th, at the plenary meeting of the Special Committee on Budget and Accounts held at the National Assembly, Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok is responding to questions. Photo by Yonhap News
On the 11th, Shin Young-dae, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, criticized Choi Sang-mok, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, at the plenary meeting of the Budget and Accounts Special Committee held at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul, saying, "Although the budget for the science and technology sector next year has increased by about 11%, a closer look reveals that the large-scale cuts made last year remain unchanged, and only nuclear-related areas such as SMR have been significantly increased," calling it a "budget concentrated in specific areas."
Deputy Prime Minister Choi immediately rebutted. He said, "I can agree with some of the points you mentioned, but there are also parts that are difficult to agree with," adding, "The R&D budget took about three years to increase from 20 trillion won to 30 trillion won. Due to criticism, we reduced budgets in low-performance areas or those not suitable for R&D." He explained that unnecessary areas were cut while organizing the rapidly increasing R&D budget.
Furthermore, Deputy Prime Minister Choi emphasized, "I also find it difficult to agree with the criticism that the increased budget is concentrated in specific sectors," adding, "We have supported young scientists and abolished the preliminary feasibility study for R&D and the sunset clause for long-term R&D projects."
Representative Shin also pointed out the budget for the welfare sector. Government expenditures are divided into mandatory spending and discretionary spending. Mandatory spending is fixed and spent regardless of government will, while discretionary spending can be increased or decreased according to government policy. Shin explained that discretionary spending in the welfare sector for next year has not increased significantly, making it difficult to protect vulnerable groups. He said, "The decrease in the proportion of discretionary spending does not align with the government's policy to discover new welfare targets and further guarantee vulnerable groups with new welfare policies."
In response, Deputy Prime Minister Choi said, "Although discretionary spending has decreased in scale, this is because the budget execution method related to public housing has been improved," adding, "In fact, the volume of public housing is increasing, so it is difficult to judge discretionary spending by amount alone." He explained that the support method for new public housing construction and purchase changed from full support in the first year to divided payments over three years, making it appear as if the budget is decreasing.
From the ruling party, there was a call for generous support for small-scale manufacturing and small business owners. Jo Ji-yeon, a member of the People Power Party, asked Oh Young-joo, Minister of SMEs and Startups, "If small business owners gather and are designated as a cluster district, they can create synergy, but it seems it would be a burden for local governments with poor fiscal independence." Minister Oh replied, "We are preparing separate measures for small business owners targeting the end of the year."
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