The Saving Encouragement Fund for Property of Agricultural & Fishing Houses, established to support the property formation of farmers and fishermen, has been recommended for 'abolishment.'
The Ministry of Economy and Finance reported during a cabinet meeting held on the 28th that a fund management evaluation team composed of private experts prepared the '2025 Fund Evaluation Results' containing this information.
Fund evaluation is divided into 'fund retention evaluation,' which assesses the validity of maintaining the fund and the appropriateness of the business and financing structure, and 'fund management evaluation,' which assesses the performance of managing surplus assets and the appropriateness of the management system.
After conducting a fund retention evaluation on 19 funds, the evaluation team recommended the abolishment of the Saving Encouragement Fund for Property of Agricultural & Fishing Houses, considering the low necessity for medium- to long-term management and the continuously decreasing demand.
The evaluation team also noted that the gender-equal fund, young-generation fostering fund, and regional newspaper development fund, which rely entirely or mostly on external resources and therefore find it difficult to achieve their initial fund purposes or have inefficient financing structures, were recommended for conditional retention with the condition of seeking diverse funding sources.
Funds with low medium-use assets, such as the climate response fund, fisheries development fund, and agricultural and fisheries industry credit guarantee fund, were recommended to adjust their operations and seek new sources of revenue. For the four funds with excessive medium-use assets, including the judicial service promotion fund, credit guarantee fund, automobile accident victim support fund, and housing & urban fund, recommendations were made for project development and monitoring of expenditure needs.
Meanwhile, according to the management evaluation results, the ratings for 26 funds, including the private school staff pension fund, were recorded at 73.7 points. The score increased compared to the previous year (72.1 points) due to improvements in asset management and higher relative returns on medium- to long-term assets.
Separately evaluated from other funds, the National Pension Fund's rating stood at 77.5, a decline from the previous year (78). The National Pension Fund achieved a return higher than the global pension fund average; however, its relative returns compared to the benchmark decreased. The evaluation rating remained the same as the previous year, classified as 'fair.'
The Ministry of Economy and Finance plans to utilize the fund evaluation results in establishing the next year's fund management plan and to make them public to the citizens through the Open Financial website after submission to the National Assembly at the end of May.