President Lee Jae-myung emphasized that the policy paradigm must be boldly shifted beyond quantitative growth to fair and sustainable growth.
On the 16th, at the Sejong Government Complex, Lee held a Cabinet meeting and said the most fundamental problem in our society is polarization, noting that polarization exists in politics, society, and the economy.
He added that even if polarization cannot be resolved, to at least ease it we must boldly shift the policy paradigm beyond quantitative growth to fair and sustainable growth, emphasizing that to do so, above all, it is important to build an economic ecosystem that promotes solidarity and cooperation among members of society along with government policy.
Lee said, when it comes to the economy and corporations, people think, "Ah, it's something you do to make money," but there are plenty of factors beyond profit, adding that there can be plenty of corporate and economic activities that increase employment or expand the public good.
He said, the government should thoroughly study policies and measures that can invigorate the social solidarity economy, or the social economy, across a wide range of fields, including cooperatives, education, culture, arts, care, health care, housing, climate, and energy, adding that we need to create systems, streamline governance, and develop policies—these various tasks are necessary.
Lee said that not doing something is bad, but delays—things that proceed so slowly you cannot tell whether they are happening or not—and projects that stop midway despite limited terms are also not desirable, calling for swift policy decisions and drafting.
Lee continued to stress solutions to polarization during the discussion with Cabinet members that followed. Presenting the revitalization of the social economy as an alternative, Lee directed officials to review ways to give preference to social corporations when the public sector entrusts work by private contract or orders goods.
He went on to note that former President Park Geun-hye designated social corporations and even provided cash support, adding that at the time he said, "If Lee Jae-myung is pro-North, then Park Geun-hye is a fixed spy," which made him famous nationwide.
Lee also shared an anecdote from his time as Seongnam mayor about selecting a trash collection contractor. He said that trash collection outsourcing was effectively a corrupt structure. There were more than a dozen cleaning companies, and the premium for the outsourced company's operating rights reached 2 billion to 3 billion won, adding that Seongnam, when selecting a cleaning company, did not follow existing practices and instead entrusted the work to a citizen shareholder corporation in which cleaning workers were shareholders.
He continued that former President Lee Myung-bak, at a Cabinet meeting at the time, praised Seongnam's case without realizing he was the Seongnam mayor, but the following year the government changed its stance and, saying there were members of the Democratic Labor Party in the cleaning company, called it a "funding source for pro-North forces." He said he was branded a "pro-North communist" and was even summoned for a prosecutorial investigation.