Foreign, defense ministries to announce key 2009 policies next week

By Yoo Cheong-mo
SEOUL, Dec. 23 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's foreign, defense and unification
ministries will announce their key policy goals for 2009 in a joint briefing to
President Lee Myung-bak on Dec. 31, the presidential spokesman said Tuesday.
The joint policy briefing by the three ministries was originally scheduled for
Jan. 13 next year but was pushed up as part of Lee's bid to speed up his overall
administrative workflow in the face of a deepening economic crisis, spokesman Lee
Dong-kwan said in his daily media briefing.
Originally, only economy-related ministries were to complete their presidential
policy briefings by the year's end, with other ministries scheduled for the first
half of January.
In consideration of the rapidly changing economic circumstances, however, the
president instructed all government ministries and agencies to complete their
briefings by the end of this year, said the spokesman.
"President Lee is determined to speed up his drive to revive the economy by
implementing the government's budget for next year as soon as possible," said the
spokesman. The hastened schedule is also related to the government's plan to
front-load its fiscal spending in the first half of next year, he explained.
Under the revised schedule, the education and culture ministries will give their
joint policy briefing on Dec. 27, while the Justice Ministry and the
Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission will report their policy goals on
Dec. 29.
Briefings by state-run corporations, including Korea Electric Power Corp., are
slated for Dec. 30.
ycm@yna.co.kr
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