The Democratic Party of Korea and the government will dispatch special envoys to major oil-producing countries, including Saudi Arabia, Oman and Algeria, in response to oil supply concerns stemming from the "Middle East war," and are also pushing a plan to deploy five Korea-flagged vessels to Yanbu Port in Saudi Arabia.
The Democratic Party of Korea, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs held the "Special Committee on Economic Response to the Middle East War, 2nd meeting" at the National Assembly on the morning of the 6th and discussed ways to secure alternative oil supply lines in response to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Ahn Do-geol, who serves as the task force secretary, said right after the meeting, "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will take the lead and make all-out diplomatic efforts, including dispatching special envoys to Saudi Arabia, Oman and Algeria, and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy is pursuing a plan to deploy five Korea-flagged vessels to Yanbu Port in Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea region."
Ahn also said, "To ease short-term supply concerns, we are also reviewing a strategic oil reserve swap (exchange) system," adding, "If private refiners secure alternative volumes overseas, the government will first supply oil from strategic reserves and then support them by exchanging it once the volumes arrive in Korea."
Meanwhile, the meeting also took up measures for domestic industry in response to the crisis originating in the Middle East. Ahn said, "The government is operating a system to check the supply chains of 50 key industries daily and is managing supply to ensure stable volumes for priority sectors such as health care," adding, "If supply instability worsens in an emergency, the party and government formed a consensus to review additional supply adjustments for specific items."
Plans to support export corporations that suffered damage were also discussed. Ahn said, "The supplementary budget includes 470 billion won for related funding," adding, "We are currently supporting at the 50% level of the gap, but reflecting industry requests, a plan to raise it to 80% has been proposed and will be actively reviewed during the National Assembly's deliberations."
Ahn also said, "An emergency voucher budget of 25.5 billion won to ease logistics costs for export-damaged corporations is included in the supplementary budget, and trade insurance will be greatly expanded," adding, "We will expand the existing 3.9 trillion won program by an additional 3 trillion won, lower guarantee fees to the 50% level, and double the loan guarantee limit." He added, "We will also extend the maturity of existing guarantees in parallel to reduce corporations' financial burdens."