President Moon Jae-in
President Moon Jae-in has called for an "aggressive" approach to combat the rising trend of trade protectionism and national egoism amid the coronavirus outbreak.
During a weekly meeting with senior aides Monday, Moon noted disruptions to the international division of labor and changes to the global supply chain, calling them much bigger threats than Japan's export restrictions.
The president said since Japan abruptly imposed trade curbs on South Korea a year ago, Seoul has turned the issue into an opportunity, pointing out that negative forecasts of how it would deal a blow to the Korean economy did not come true.
He added there was not a single case of production setbacks, but rather the country was able to localize the production of industrial parts, materials and equipment.
Moon said the global supply chain crisis must also be turned into an opportunity and urged the government to map out a detailed strategy and plan to advance Korea into a materials and parts powerhouse and a global factory in high-tech industries.
On the economic impact from the pandemic, Moon again asked lawmakers to approve another stimulus budget proposal which is pending in parliament due to a partisan standoff over the appointment of committee chairs.
<Photo: Yonhap News>
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