Choi Sang-mok "Announcement of '10 trillion supplementary budget' early next week"

3-4 trillion each for Trade·AI Competitiveness, Support for Ordinary People·Small Business Owners

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Choi Sang-mok announced on the 8th, "We will announce a supplementary budget plan of 10 trillion won early next week."

In his opening remarks at the economic ministers' meeting held at the government complex in Seoul this morning, Deputy Prime Minister Choi said, "The specific details of the supplementary budget will be finalized through consultations with relevant ministries this week," as he stated.

Previously, the government proposed a supplementary budget of 10 trillion won, announcing that it would allocate the supplementary budget to △strengthening trade and artificial intelligence (AI) competitiveness △supporting people's livelihoods △responding to disasters and calamities. It is expected that 3-4 trillion won will be allocated to trade response and AI competitiveness enhancement, and 3-4 trillion won to support for ordinary people and small business owners.

Deputy Prime Minister Choi said, "We will significantly expand the 'tariff response and export voucher' for small and medium-sized enterprises affected by tariffs, and additionally supply policy finance such as emergency management stabilization funds," and "To stabilize the supply chain of key items, we will establish investment subsidies for advanced industrial materials, parts, and equipment, and expand investment subsidies for returning and foreign-invested companies."

Regarding support for ordinary people and small business owners, he explained, "We will expand low-interest policy funds for small business owners and discover projects to maximize the consumption capacity of ordinary and vulnerable groups."

For disaster and calamity response, he said, "We will support the expansion of drones for forest fire monitoring, the introduction of high-performance helicopters, and the advancement of forest fire prevention and extinguishing systems."

Deputy Prime Minister Choi expressed concern, "Due to the announcement of mutual tariffs by the United States, there is a concern about serious damage to our industries and companies, and the volatility of the global stock market has greatly expanded due to concerns about a trade war, affecting our financial and foreign exchange markets."

He continued, "We can no longer delay crisis response," emphasizing, "I earnestly request the National Assembly for prompt discussion and handling so as not to miss the golden time to save our industries and companies."

Seulki Lee, Hankyung.com reporter seulkee@hankyung.com