Full transcript of President Yoon Seok-youl’s national briefing,
, ‘Respected citizens, how difficult it must have been for you in the unending heat?’,
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, ‘This summer, damages occurred in various places due to concentrated heavy rain, followed by record-breaking heatwaves and tropical nights, making it a challenging time.’,
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, ‘However, the government and local governments worked together to prepare meticulously from the early stages, and thanks to the active cooperation of the citizens, we were able to smoothly get through the summer without major disasters.’,
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, ‘I express my gratitude to all those who worked hard to protect the safety of the citizens, and the government will do its best for the swift restoration and support of the affected areas.’,
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, ‘The vitality of the economy is reviving.’,
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, ‘Dear citizens, following the presentation to the nation on the second anniversary since my inauguration in May and the briefing on the East Sea deep-sea gas exploration project in June, I am delivering the third national report of this year.’,
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, ‘There have been many welcome news so far.’,
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, ‘Above all, on July 17, our country was selected as the preferred negotiator for the Czech nuclear power plant construction project worth 24 trillion won.’,
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, ‘I will soon visit the Czech Republic to personally ensure the successful conclusion of the final contract.’,
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, ‘This year’s first-half export performance exceeded expectations.’,
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, ‘We achieved a 9.1% increase in exports from the same period last year, reaching 335 billion dollars, and in particular, the gap in export value with Japan narrowed to 3.2 billion dollars, which is a significant improvement from the 32 billion dollars just three years ago.’,
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, ‘In 2008, the Korea-Japan export gap reached a whopping 360 billion dollars, and even until 2021, it surpassed 100 billion dollars, but in just three years, Korea has caught up with Japan and is now eyeing a place among the top 5 exporting countries in the world.’,
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, ‘What was once an unimaginable feat has become a reality right before our eyes.’,
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, “In my inaugural speech as President, I promised to achieve ‘rapid growth’ through science, technology, and innovation,”,
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, ‘and I have been doing my best to keep that promise.’,
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, ‘To foster innovation in corporate creativity and innovation, I boldly reformed killer regulations and poured efforts into creating a 622 trillion won semiconductor megapluster, among other initiatives to lay the foundation for the development of advanced industries.’,
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, ‘To restore the nuclear ecosystem, I resumed the construction of Shin-Hanul Units 3 and 4 and actively engaged in sales diplomacy.’,
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, ‘These efforts are bearing fruit in economic growth.’,
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, ‘In July, the IMF forecasted our growth rate for this year as’,
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, ‘2.5%, which is the second highest level among major advanced economies, following the United States at 2.6%.’,
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, ‘The employment rate has recorded the highest level for 30 consecutive months, and the unemployment rate is also at the lowest level in history.’,
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, ‘Last year, our per capita national income surpassed Japan for the first time.’,
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, “The international credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has forecasted that our per capita GDP will exceed 40,000 dollars by 2026.”,
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, ‘As a result of maintaining a sound fiscal policy, national finances have become even more robust.’,
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, ‘Over the past five years, national debt has increased by more than 400 trillion won, from 660 trillion won to 1,076 trillion won, and the national debt-to-GDP ratio has increased significantly from 34% to 47%.’,
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, ‘Based on next year’s budget proposal, the national debt-to-GDP ratio is 48.3%, showing an increase of 1.3 percentage points over the past three years.’,
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, ‘Our competitiveness and growth trend are now drawing the attention of the world.’,
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, ‘In late last year, the prominent international magazine The Economist ranked our economic performance as the 2nd best among OECD countries, and in June, the Swiss International Institute of Management Development rated our national competitiveness at its highest level ever.’,
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, “In May, the economic media outlet Bloomberg described our export growth as ‘blockbuster level’, saying it is remarkable how Korea’s economy is not widely recognized.”,
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, ‘Our economy is decisively recovering, and I tell you, our citizens, that we will leap even further into the future.’,
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, ‘We are devoting all our energy to improving the quality of life and welfare of the vulnerable.’,
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, ‘Dear citizens, the government and I are putting all our efforts into ensuring that the fruits of growth spread more quickly to the lives of the people.’,
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, ‘To address the rising cost of living, extraordinary measures have been implemented.’,
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, ‘The inflation rate has stabilized with a decrease, and the rate of increase in the consumer price index has remained in the 2% range for the past four months.’,
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, ‘To alleviate the difficulties caused by high-interest rates, we have implemented the online loan swap program.’,
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, ‘As a result of promoting competition among banks, loans totaling 14 trillion won have been shifted to lower interest rates, significantly reducing the interest burden on the people.’,
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, ‘To support small business owners facing difficulties due to the pandemic, our government has provided over 30 trillion won in support since taking office, and starting from July this year, we are implementing tailored support worth 25 trillion won.’,
,
, ‘Considering the recent rise in housing prices in the capital region, on August 8, we introduced a housing supply plan for 427,000 units in the metropolitan area.’,
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, ‘We will increase the supply of an average of 70,000 units annually for the next six years in the metropolitan area to expand the supply volume by about 11% compared to the historical average.’,
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, ‘We will do our best to ensure that homes are supplied in a timely manner where people want them.’,
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, ‘We are making significant efforts, but it is regrettable that the improvement in the quality of life for the people is not improving as quickly as expected.’,
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, ‘While the consumer price index appears to be stabilizing, we believe that the prices in the shopping baskets that citizens feel are still high.’,
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, ‘Along with providing discounts, we will significantly expand supplies through the release of reserve quantities, allocation tariffs, and imports of alternative products.’,
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, ‘Structurally, we will drastically reduce distribution costs through the activation of online wholesale markets and develop varieties that can adapt to climate change.’,
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, ‘As a result of high-interest rates and domestic economic sluggishness due to the pandemic, small business owners and self-employed individuals continue to face difficulties.’,
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, ‘We will extend repayment periods for policy funds loans and convert high-interest loans of 7% or more into lower interest loans of 4.5% without delay.’,
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, ‘Moreover, to revitalize domestic demand, we will provide substantial assistance to small business owners and self-employed individuals.’,
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, ‘We will actively promote initiatives such as promoting consumption in traditional markets, expanding the issuance of state-funded gift certificates, and offering discounts for accompanying festivals announced in the Chuseok stability plan yesterday.’,
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, ‘Domestic consumption is slower to recover compared to exports.’,
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, ‘I ask our major companies to purchase state-funded gift certificates this Chuseok holiday season so that they can help with co-existence and early domestic market recovery.’,
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, ‘Overall employment situation is good, but the job situation for young people is still challenging.’,
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, ‘To activate youth employment, we will continue to expand quality job experiences, vocational training, and job-seeking programs to stimulate job-seeking desires.’,
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, “Furthermore, we will work harder to ensure that university students can study without financial worries.”,
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, ‘We will significantly expand the National Scholarship Fund program from the current 1 million recipients to 1.5 million recipients starting next year.’,
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, ‘The work-study scholarship program, which allows work and study concurrently, will be increased from 140,000 recipients to 200,000 recipients next year, and we will introduce a new housing scholarship program for low-income individuals.’,
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, ‘We will put more efforts into warm care for the lives of those in need.’,
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, ‘In the past five years, we increased the basic livelihood benefits for low-income individuals by an average of 8.3% per year, and this year alone, we achieved a record monthly increase of 210,000 won.’,
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, “We have relaxed the criteria for selecting beneficiaries, so the number of beneficiaries of livelihood benefits, which was 1.52 million just before our government took office, will continue to expand to 1.81 million by 2026.”,
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, ‘We are also continuously expanding service welfare that meets high consumer demand, with an increase of 250 billion won budget allocation for childcare, caregiving, and mental health investments this year.’,
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, ‘Since implementing the birth notification system and protection delivery system in July to prevent abandonment and abuse of infants and toddlers, we were able to protect the lives of 16 precious individuals who were in crisis within just a month.’,
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, ‘We are fundamentally improving problems accumulated in schools.’,
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, ‘By amending the five education-related laws to establish educational activities of teachers through law and improve the school violence response system, we have created an environment where teachers can focus on education.’,
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, ‘We are dismantling a structure that excludes access to fair educational opportunities, such as the exclusion of the “killer questions” in university entrance exams and dismantling unfair practices that deprive equal education opportunities.’,
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, ‘Establishing the rule of law in industrial relations has changed the labor market structure.’,
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, ‘Large-scale illegal strikes, which used to be annual events, have disappeared.’,
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, ‘The number of days lost to labor strikes has decreased to one-third compared to the previous government.’,
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, ‘By ensuring that 90% of labor unions participate in disclosing their financial accounts, transparency has been enhanced, and unfair practices such as preferential hiring of union executives’ children have also been corrected.’,
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, ‘Since February of this year, we have resumed social dialogue through the Labor-Management Council, continuing the discussion of reform tasks one by one.’,
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, ‘We are truly grateful for the efforts of the labor unions to move away from one-sided struggles and for actively contributing to the labor-management peace of dialogue and compromise.’,
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, ‘We have expanded our diplomatic horizons and economic territory as a global central