President calls for competitive, sustainable welfare system

President Yoon Suk Yeol speaks at a strategic meeting on social security at the Blue House in central Seoul on Wednesday. [PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE]

President Yoon Suk Yeol called on the need for "more competitive" social security services in a strategy meeting focused on building a sustainable welfare state Wednesday.

"We need to marketize and industrialize social security services and introduce a competitive system," Yoon said in the strategy meeting on social security at the Blue House in central Seoul, ordering aides to improve welfare measures to better ensure economic growth and avoid wasting resources.

The meeting, attended by some 50 officials, including Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, Minister of Health and Welfare Cho Kyoo-hong, and civilian experts, was an opportunity for the Yoon administration to solidify its welfare policies and set out a blueprint for a more integrated social security system.

Yoon noted that social security "must strike a balance that does not impede upon proper growth and development."

He stressed that cash handouts need to be centered on actually helping out the truly socially underprivileged, speaking out against universal welfare.

"If you distribute money uniformly, it's just spending money," Yoon said. "Cash welfare should be selective and for the vulnerable, not universal welfare."

He stressed there should be "a little more for those in need, and a little less for those who are less in need for there to be some balance."

Yoon underscored that "social security that goes beyond what we can afford is eating away at our society itself," pushing instead for "service welfare."

He said social services "will not become a growth engine" unless they are marketized.

Yoon then called for collaboration between related ministries for better integration of welfare services and called to abolish redundant and scattered welfare projects between the central and local governments.

The central government runs around 1,000 social security and welfare programs, while local governments run around 10,000 projects "that the people do not even know of," Yoon pointed out.

The meeting reviewed the direction of the administration's social security policies and aimed to solidify its "welfare philosophy," according to the presidential office in a statement. The Yoon government's strategy focuses on promoting welfare for the vulnerable, welfare services and financial innovation to enable the vision of establishing a sustainable welfare state.

A better integrated and seamless social security system will streamline complex central government systems to make them more accessible to the people through connecting delivery systems, making them more user-friendly and strengthening efficiency and management, the office added.

This includes expanding social services from the vulnerable to the middle class, creating good jobs through public-private collaboration, active regulatory improvements and enabling more competitive conditions to enable better employment, with the help of technology and innovation.

"The state must first and foremost protect the safety of its citizens," Yoon said during the meeting. "From outside, we have to protect our country from foreign enemies who attack our country, and domestically, from those who harm our people by violating the law. Furthermore, diplomacy, security and law enforcement can be said to be an essential function of the state."

"Social services will be supported by the government financially, but we will create a structure in which a number of emerging private companies will also be able to compete," said Ahn Sang-hoon, senior presidential secretary for social affairs, in a briefing at the presidential office Wednesday.

"The main conclusion of today's discussion was to focus cash welfare on those who are vulnerable, while universalizing social services to all citizens one by one," he added. "Through this, we will improve the quality of services and create good jobs so that we can create a virtuous cycle of growth."

He stressed that "laying the foundation for a sustainable welfare state for the youth and future generations is a key task of the Yoon administration."

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]