SEOUL, Oct. 26 (UPI) -- South Korean President Kim Dae-jung on Friday said his government would take steps to bolster domestic demand and consumption to soften the impact of declining exports on the economy.
As part of efforts to boost local demand, Kim presented a second supplementary budget for this year, worth $1.4 billion, before the National Assembly to be mostly used to stimulate business investment and consumer spending.
He said the government plans to spend about $550 million to $628 million for construction projects to create jobs and prop up growth, an official at the Finance and Economy Ministry said.
Kim also promised to improve the investment environment and ease corporate regulations in order to recover investor sentiment.
"The government will make its utmost efforts to nurture high-tech industries, such as information and communications, bio technologies and the environment industry, in order to help strengthen the nation's growth potential," Kim said.
There have been gloomy predictions for the South Korean economy. The central Bank of Korea on Thursday said that last month's terrorists attacks on the United States and subsequent retaliation campaign were expected to delay the recovery of the South Korean economy.
The state-run think-tank, Korea Development Institute, slashed the country's projected economic growth rate for this year to 2.2 percent, half of its previous forecast of 4.4 percent on-year growth forecast made in July.
Some analysts said Kim could hardly come up with more drastic measures to revive the economy following Thursday's by-elections in which the main opposition Grand National Party won three parliamentary spots.
