President calls for increased support for small shop keepers

By Byun Duk-kun
SEOUL, June 25 (Yonhap) -- President Lee Myung-bak called for increased
government support Thursday for the working and middle class and small shop
owners who may have to wait up to two years before feeling the effects of an
improved economy, his spokesman said.
Lee's call also comes as part of his new centrist approach to political and
economic affairs, according to presidential spokesman Lee Dong-kwan.
"This means the president will approach those in the middle while defending our
universal values, such as a free market economy, rule of law and globalization,"
the spokesman told a press briefing.
President Lee said on Monday that the country needed strong moderates, noting
that a recent rift between rival political parties was due to ideological
divisions.
He was later scheduled to hold a meeting with a group of street vendors and
small-shop owners, which his spokesman described as an opportunity for the
president to present his new centrist approach to the economy.
"This means the president will continue to seek to galvanize the economy by
improving market efficiency, but that he will also continuously pay attention and
work to improve the livelihood of working class citizens by establishing social
safety nets," he said.
The president, presiding over a weekly economic meeting, instructed his Cabinet
ministers to focus policy for the second half of the year on improving people's
livelihood.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in its latest
forecast predicted the South Korean economy, the world's 13th largest, will
contract 2.2 percent this year but rebound to a 3.5 percent growth in 2010.
"International economic organizations, such as the OECD, are giving very positive
predictions that (South Korea) will come out of the crisis before any other
country, but we still must not loosen our guard," the president was quoted as
saying in the meeting.
"(The government) has given top expenditure and policy priority to the common
people, but we still cannot see any signs that their livelihood has improved even
a bit," the president said, according to the spokesman.
bdk@yna.co.kr
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