South Korea's President Yoon Suk-yeol (center) speaks on the government's supplementary revised budget bill at the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea on May 16, 2022. (JEON HEON-KYUN / POOL PHOTO VIA AP)
SEOUL – South Korea's new government will streamline public organizations, the finance minister said on Friday, citing concerns about efficiency after a rapid expansion in their operations under the previous administration.
President Yoon Suk-yeol, who took office in May, has promised to reform the public sector and said early this month his government would aggressively cut expenditure and sell non-core assets at public enterprises
The government will cut the number of employees and reduce expenses at the organizations as the first step in a planned series of reform measures, Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho was quoted in a statement as saying at a scheduled meeting.
President Yoon Suk-yeol, who took office in May, has promised to reform the public sector and said early this month his government would aggressively cut expenditure and sell non-core assets at public enterprises.
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The move came as Yoon suffers a sustained decline in approval ratings, with the latest weekly opinion poll from Gallup Korea showing on Friday his approval fell to 28 percent from 32 percent a week earlier.
Choo said a total of 350 public organizations were employing 449,000 people as of the end of May and carrying 583 trillion won ($449 billion) in combined liabilities at the end of 2021, up 34 percent and 17 percent over the past five years, respectively.
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There were concerns among the general public and experts about efficiency and profitability matching the rapid expansion in scale of public organizations, he said.