[On-Site Video+] Choi Sang-mok said, "Big opposition party is engrossed in political dispute over the budget proposal...I'm deeply sorry."

[Anchor]
The government deeply regrets that the opposition party has handled the budget bill alone at the Budget and Accounts Committee, and Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok, the Ministry of Public Administration and Security, and the Minister of Health and Welfare jointly announce the government's position, including the problems of the opposition party's single reduction plan.

Let's listen to the presentation of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Strategy and Finance Choi Sang-mok.

[Choi Sang-mok / Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Strategy and Finance]
My fellow citizens, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Strategy and Finance Choi Sang-mok.

The opposition party passed the reduced budget bill alone at the Special Committee on Budget and Accounts on November 29 and is vowing to pass it at the plenary session today.

On November 29, when the opposition party pushed ahead with the budget bill, the government and the ruling party attended the Special Committee on Budget and Accounts to continue discussing the budget bill.

Nevertheless, the opposition party unilaterally dealt with the reduction plan, saying the government did not negotiate properly.

The opposition party's claim that it was inevitable to deal with the government alone to prevent the government's automatic denial is also not convincing.

This is because even if the government's proposal is automatically negative, the ruling and opposition parties have agreed to deal with the amendment every year.

The opposition party even insists that the government supplement the supplementary budget after handling the reduction plan alone, but it is common sense for the ruling and opposition parties to agree and reflect it in the main budget if there is a project to increase it.

The world is in a war without gunfire, and the big opposition party says it can't give our companies a much-needed bullet because they are only engrossed in political strife by taking the budget as hostage.

As the minister in charge of the national budget, I deeply regret the opposition's irresponsible handling of the matter alone.

Let me explain in detail once again the side effects and problems of the opposition's single reduction plan on people's livelihoods and our economy.

First, external uncertainty will add more risk to our economy, which is in a more severe situation than ever.

Now, the Korean economy is deeply troubled by vulnerable groups such as ordinary people and small business owners due to the aftermath of the global complex crisis.We are facing strong internal and external challenges such as deepening protection trade and supply chain instability following the launch of the new U.S. government
.

As such, the opposition party is pushing ahead with the reduction budget in an economic crisis that the whole nation must work together to respond to.

The damage is entirely to our people and businesses.

It can reduce capacity to respond to bad news at home and abroad, increase uncertainty, and reduce confidence in our fiscal management capabilities, undermining national credibility.

This is because it is easy to find overseas cases in which uncertainties in the policy-making process, such as the budget, negatively affected the national credit rating.

Second, amid intensifying global industrial competition, we will miss the golden time to increase the competitiveness of our industry.

The opposition's sole budget cut the government's budget to create industrial ecosystems such as innovative growth funds and nuclear power industry growth funds, and reduced R&D for future growth engines such as basic research, quantum, semiconductor, and bio by 77.9 billion won.

The reserve fund was also cut to 2.4 trillion won, which is half of it.

In fact, in 2019, a total of 2.7 trillion won in reserves was used for the year due to the need to develop technology for small managers in response to Japanese export regulations.

However, next year, even if such urgent changes in industry and trade occur, it will be difficult to respond in a timely manner.

Last month, the government launched a meeting of related ministers to strengthen industrial competitiveness, promising active financial support to expand infrastructure such as power grids and AI computing infrastructure, which are essential for semiconductor clusters.

However, if the opposition party handles the reduction plan alone, this promise will also not be able to be kept.

In addition, the revision of the tax law, which the opposition party intends to pass alone at the plenary session, does not include expanding tax support for national strategic technologies such as semiconductors and AI, which the ruling and opposition parties and the government tentatively agreed on, reducing the burden on small business owners, and boosting domestic demand.

Third, government support plans for people's livelihoods and the local economy, which are still struggling, are also inevitable.

The opposition has also cut representative projects to improve social mobility, such as youth leaping accounts, college student work scholarships, youth work experience and the formation of low-income children's assets.

The budget for childcare and medical reform, which is closely related to the lives of the people, will also be reduced,

We are concerned about a major setback in our response to crimes by reducing the cost of confidential investigations into drug crimes that have increased 1.5 times over the past three years and deepfake crimes that have increased 5 times.

The aforementioned significant cuts in reserve funds will also greatly weaken the government's ability to respond to large-scale disasters, disasters, and infectious diseases.

If the opposition party pushes ahead with the single plan, additional support for small business owners and reinforcement of projects to revitalize the local economy, regardless of the ruling and opposition parties, will be impossible.

My fellow citizens,

The opposition party's reduction plan is a budget that neutralizes disasters and trade risks, a budget that ignores people's livelihoods and local economies, a budget that loses opportunities for timely recovery of industrial competitiveness, and a loose budget that cuts interest costs on treasury bonds by 500 billion won.

As the determination of the national budget is an important decision that has a huge impact on people's lives, the national economy as a whole, and all parts of the country, it is a desirable budget-making process that the people want to make by consensus between the ruling and opposition parties.

The economy doesn't run on its own.

People's livelihoods are not restored for free.The growing external uncertainty of

is difficult to respond to even if the public and the ruling and opposition parties agree.

Time is not on our side either.

The opposition party urges us to withdraw the single reduction plan, which is unprecedented in constitutional history, and engage in sincere negotiations even now.