Park calls for overhaul of role of state lenders

President Park Geun-hye called Monday for restructuring the roles of state lending agencies to improve efficiency in funding key policy goals of her government, such as providing export support for smaller firms and increasing the employment rate, her spokeswoman said.

Park made the remark after receiving a report on reorganizing the government’s “policy financing” system during a weekly meeting with senior secretaries, saying the current system lacks efficiency as related roles are scattered across various agencies, according to spokeswoman Kim Haing.

Policy financing refers to credit provided by the state to meet policy objectives. State agencies playing such roles include the Korea Development Bank, Korea Finance Corp., the Export-Import Bank of Korea and Korea Trade Insurance Corp.

“The role of policy financing is very important if our economic revitalization policies, such as creating an ecosystem for the ‘creative economy,’ providing export support for smaller businesses and increasing the employment rate to 70 percent, are to succeed,” Park was quoted as saying.

“I think it is time to restructure the policy financing system as there has been criticism about its lack of efficiency and risk management because policy financing roles are dispersed across many agencies and are overlapping,” she said.

Park also told officials to work on the issue from the perspective of companies. (Yonhap News)