Korea’s finance minister Tuesday called on the heads of public organizations to push for active debt reduction and other self-rescue efforts with a “sense of crisis” to successfully carry out the ongoing overhaul drive for the public sector.
The remarks were made by Finance Minister Hyun Oh-seok during a meeting with the chief executive officers of 38 public companies, which are under the government’s close supervision for their lax management and soaring debt problems.

On Dec. 11, the government ordered debt-ridden major public organizations to map out self-rescue plans, including asset sale as part of efforts to tackle their soaring debt and enhance efficiency in the public sector.

Based on the government’s “normalization plan,” they were asked to come up with their self-rescue measures and submit them to the finance ministry by January.

“The success of the normalization plan that we recently unveiled depends on no other than the role of you, who lead public organizations,” Hyun said during the meeting. “It is necessary for you to set goals that live up to people’s expectations and draw up ways to attain the objectives in cooperation with labor unions.

”I hope that you take this matter with a sense of crisis. I want you to realize that, without self-rescue efforts, our public organizations will face problems and so will our economy,“ he added.

He also noted that the government will provide support for public organizations and work together with them to find ways to resolve difficulties that could emerge in the process of reform efforts. (Yonhap News)