South Korea yesterday announced a record 28.9 trillion won (US$20.9 billion) extra budget aimed at pulling the country back from the brink of its first recession in 11 years.
The Strategy and Finance Ministry said the budget — twice the size of extra spending during the 1998 Asian economic crisis — will save and create jobs, support small businesses, invest in new growth engines and help the poor and the jobless.
The ministry said in a statement that the budget, to be submitted to parliament this month, “puts priority on overcoming the economic crisis early.”
The export-driven economy has been hard hit by the global slump as overseas markets shrink. It declined 5.6 percent quarter-on-quarter in October to December, the steepest fall since 1998.
South Korean Finance Minister Yoon Jeung-hyun has said the economy will likely contract 2 percent this year and lose 200,000 jobs, while many private researchers expect a much steeper downturn.
The extra spending is equivalent to about 2 percent of GDP. It is expected to boost growth by 1.5 percentage points, the ministry said.
“The global economic downturn is taking place at a faster pace than expected in terms of its depth and breadth,” Yoon told reporters after the Cabinet approved the extra spending.
“Reflecting changed economic conditions at home and abroad, the government decided to draw up this extra budget to overcome the current crisis as quickly as possible,” he said.
Some 3.5 trillion won will be used to save and create jobs, including job-sharing schemes, the ministry said. The aim is to create 552,000 jobs in addition to those saved.
The number of people employed fell last month by 142,000 year-on-year, the largest reduction since September 2003.
Some 4.5 trillion won will go to support small and medium-size firms.
The budget sets aside 3 trillion won to reinvigorate the regional economy. Some 2.5 trillion will be invested in improving advanced education and in new growth engines — such as the government’s “green new deal” spending on environmentally friendly technology and projects.
The sum of 4.2 trillion won has been set aside to help low-income and jobless people.
The new spending totals 17.7 trillion won. The remaining 11.2 trillion won will largely be used to fund previously announced projects and tax cuts.
The navy has installed 13 Phalanx Block 1B close-in weapons systems on its warships, increasing their defensive firepower, a defense official said on Saturday. The systems cost the navy NT$10.16 billion (US$314.67 million), while eight additional Block 1A systems are being upgraded in the US and are expected to be delivered next year, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The Phalanx system used by Taiwan to defend its warships and key radar installations is a radar-cued gun system capable of firing 4,500 rounds a minute at targets as far away as 1.5km, the official said. With their superior range of
RACE FOR CHIPS: The Dresden site would help Europe reduce its reliance on Asia for semiconductors, while Germany aims to produce one-fifth of the world’s chips by 2030 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday broke ground in Dresden, Germany, on its first European plant as the continent seeks to safeguard its chip supplies amid growing US-China tensions. TSMC chief executive C.C. Wei (魏哲家) attended the event, together with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and the heads of Infineon Technologies AG, NXP Semiconductors NV and Robert Bosch GmbH, which each hold a 10 percent stake in the venture. TSMC owns a 70 percent stake in the plant. “Together with our partners, Bosch, Infineon and NXP, we are building our Dresden facility to meet the
RECOVERY: Overall, average income across all age groups increased, climbing to a record NT$709,000 last year, on the back of an improved economy, the DGBAS said Taiwanese workers under the age of 30 last year, on average, earned an annual income of NT$545,931 (US$17,044), a new high, as the economy continued to improve, data released by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) showed. That equated to monthly earnings of NT$45,494 per person, and marked an increase from NT$535,667 in 2022, the data showed. In addition to an improved economy, average incomes rose as the unemployment rate declined and the minimum wage rose, the statistics agency said. Overall, average income in Taiwan also hit a new record of NT$709,000 last year, up from NT$704,000 in 2022, the data
CARROT AND STICK: Palauan president said in 2020 the Chinese ambassador to a neighboring country pledged to flood his country with tourists if it switches alliance Beijing weaponized tourism to the Pacific archipelago of Palau over its allegiance to Taiwan and its accusations that China was behind a major cyberattack there, Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr told The Associated Press (AP). Palau, along with Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands, is one of the three Pacific nations to recognize Taiwan as an independent democracy. Taipei’s allies in the Pacific have dwindled from six countries in 2019. Nauru abandoned its ties in January. Whipps told the AP in an interview late on Thursday that, in 2020, while he was running for his current post, the Chinese ambassador to a neighboring country