South Korea should successfully push ahead with sweeping structural reforms if it wants to make the next leap forward, the top economic policymaker said Monday.
Speaking at the construction site of a railway line here, Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan said Asia's fourth-largest economy will be able to strive for growth only by making headway in changing the labor, finance, public and education sectors.
"If the country implements changes, per capita income could reach the US$30,000-40,000 range," the finance minister argued. The country's per capita income has been stuck around $30,000 for some years.
With the approval of the 11.5 trillion-won extra budget last month, he said, the government is in the process of injecting funds into the economy as soon as possible to overcome the fallout from the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak and weak exports.
The finance ministry was forced to downgrade growth estimates for 2015 to 3.1 percent from 3.8 percent, primarily because of MERS and minus export growth.
"Efforts are under way to spend about 5 trillion won in funds that were originally earmarked for the fourth quarter in the July-September period that could exert more impact on the economy," he said.
On latest economic developments, Choi said the government is keeping close tabs on the situations in Greece and China that all pose downside risks.
Choi, who doubles as deputy prime minister for economic affairs, also said about 290 billion won in this year's extra budget will be poured into the 120.7-kilometer-long Wonju-Gangneung line that will help ferry visitors to the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games from the capital city. There is already a railway from Seoul to Wonju.
Once completed, the railway will allow people in Seoul using the train to reach Gangneung, 237 kilometers east of Seoul, in a little over an hour, from close to six hours at present. PyeongChang is between Wonju and Gangneung. (Yonhap)
