Govt. to assess impact of all major projects on jobs

The government will evaluate all public entities, including state-run firms, and most of their projects for their impact on new and existing jobs that may determine the size of their budget in the future, a presidential committee on jobs said Tuesday.

Starting next year, the public entities and their projects will be scored on the number of new, quality jobs they create.

The scores will be reflected in the size of their budget for the following year, while private firms that create many new jobs may benefit from various incentives that will include tax breaks and additional points when bidding for government projects, according to the Presidential Committee on Job Creation.

The new job impact assessment system comes in line with President Moon Jae-in's new people- and income-oriented economic policy.

The new South Korean president has vowed to create more than 800,000 new jobs in the public sector alone during his single five-year term. He also heads the presidential committee on jobs.

"The government will continue to enhance and expand the job impact assessment on all major policies, budget spending and bills to shift the focus of state management to jobs," said Park Soo-hyun, a spokesman for the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae.

New legislation and revisions will be reviewed in advance to gauge their impact on new and existing jobs, and should they be determined to be inadequate or negative for jobs, they will be asked to be modified.

Those deemed to have a massive, positive impact on creating new jobs will be put on the fast track for review by the Ministry of Government Legislation, according to the job creation committee. (Yonhap)