The Presidential Committee on Policy Planning has disclosed three of the total 16 expedited projects. The expedited projects announced this time include "price transparency for marriage services," "enhancement of budget execution for artificial intelligence (AI) in national projects," and "expanding food purchase opportunities in areas facing population decline."
Spokesperson Cho Seung-rae held a briefing at the annex of the Government Seoul Office in Changseong-dong on the 14th and noted, "After inter-departmental discussions, we will prioritize the announcement of three expedited projects that can be made public." The committee plans to select some national tasks as expedited projects and quickly turn them into policies.
The committee has selected the plan to disclose prices for wedding services known as "Sdeume (studio, dress, makeup)" as an expedited project. This is included in President Lee Jae-myung's presidential campaign pledge, and it specifically aims to mandate the detailed pricing and refund conditions for wedding preparation agency services.
Spokesperson Cho said, "It's necessary to mandate the display of detailed prices and refund conditions for services provided by wedding venues or wedding preparation service agencies," adding, "Since many complaints have been raised regarding unclear service terms, we will quickly improve the system regarding this issue."
The enhancement of AI budget execution emphasized its necessity by citing the "BK21 (Brain Korea 21)" project. Spokesperson Cho explained, "For expenses related to the BK21 project, purchasing software like Hangul and Excel is exceptionally allowed after considering relevance," adding, "We plan to create guidelines to allow the purchase of generative AI."
Regarding the expansion of food purchase opportunities in areas facing population decline, he stated, "We have prohibited mobile sales of food retail, especially of packaged meats, but we have been discussing allowing this aspect," and noted that "related agencies have already begun legislative notice on this matter."
The committee also presented improvements for public institutions centered around the Performance-Based System (PBS). The policy aims to reduce PBS to prevent domestic research institutions from solely operating on entrustment projects and to increase the proportion of government grants.
Spokesperson Cho explained, "In order to cover personnel expenses, the structure has become such that it is difficult to fill salaries without undertaking entrusted projects, leading to a drop in research immersion," and added, "We are considering a comprehensive reform plan, including the abolition of the PBS system to enhance research quality."
He further remarked, "Reducing the PBS means increasing government grants," and added, "We are designing the structure to increase the proportion of contributions towards moderate and long-term research, basic research, and essential research."