The government will seek to speed up education reform as part of its ongoing efforts to prop up the country's competitiveness and help young people find jobs, the economic czar said Thursday.
  

Chairing a meeting of a fiscal strategy coordination committee in Seoul, Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan said the focus will be placed on revamping the country's universities so they can better meet the changing demands of the labor market.
  

"Fiscal support will be given to schools that make the necessary changes," he said. "The amount of money given will depend on the extent of reforms with those that make sweeping changes to get more."
  

The remarks reflect a widespread view that the country's higher educational institutions are unable to train students for their future jobs, contributing to high unemployment among young people.
  

The jobless rate for people between the ages of 15 through 29 stood at 8 percent in August, much higher than the 3.4 percent for the country as a whole.
  

The government set aside 236.2 billion won ($198.5 million) in next year's budget aimed at facilitating restructuring and consolidating departments and even schools. This program envisions providing 5-20 billion won worth of support to each school that carries out reforms.

Choi also said that while state debt will surpass 40 percent of the nation's gross domestic product in 2016, there is no need to be overly worried. He pointed out that in the first seven months of the year, the government collected 135 trillion won in taxes, up 11 trillion won compared to the year before.
  

To maintain the overall fiscal health of the country, Choi stressed the government is committed to moving forward reforms that restrict excessive spending and cut back on tax breaks.
  

The fiscal strategy coordination committee, meanwhile, said measures will be taken to improve the way state funds reach cash-strapped small and medium enterprises.
  

There has been growing criticism that support is not distributed evenly among qualified companies, causing many to go bankrupt.
  

Key among the changes to be made will be to allocate 30 percent of all state funds available to companies that have been in operation for 3-7 years, which are usually at a crossroads of making the next leap forward or forced to close for lack of appropriate funding.
  

The committee said at present 22.9 percent of such funds go to the companies. (Yonhap)