Bracing for the battle of welfare and economic pledges in the approaching presidential election, parties are making headways in their policy-planning while working to seize the upper hand on economic democratization plans.

Former economist Kim Chong-in, chairman of the ruling Saenuri Party’s Special Committee to Pursue People’s Happiness, held a press conference Wednesday and shared a general vision of the party’s policies.

The committee was formed earlier this week as one of the new brainstorming bodies for the Saenuri’s presidential candidate Rep. Park Geun-hye.

The main opposition Democratic United Party’s think tank also presented the same day a five-pillar policy proposals titled “Healing Korea” to be the basis for its presidential policies.

The move was considered to be an upgraded approach by the DUP for its economic democratization-related bills for wider public awareness. The DUP’s primary to elect the presidential candidate is scheduled to continue until mid-September.

“Economic democratization has become common sense now and it would be difficult for anyone to object to it,” Kim, who had coined the phrase for the 1987 constitutional revision, said.

“The most serious problem is the economic and social confrontation, with more than 80 percent of the people agreeing that (society) has become a standoff between the 1 percent and the rest of the 99 percent,” Kim said.

Kim underscored the importance of maintaining stability while achieving consensus among the people in alleviating economic polarization and even said the party was open to considering the opposition’s proposals if necessary.

“The purpose of economic democratization is to consistently maintain efficiency and stability by putting the market economy into practical use.”

Kim also criticized the large conglomerates, saying chaebol conglomerates have come to believe that they were accountable for their mammoth growth, when in fact they had received abnormal benefits and support from the government for sake of the country’s rapid economic growth.

“Physiologically, conglomerates have no end to their greed and because they cannot restrain their greed themselves, we have to democratize their decision making processes,” Kim said.

As one of the key tasks, Kim said his committee will be working on easing discrepancies between regular and irregular workers.

In response to concerns on increased taxation that may follow welfare expansion, Kim said the party will first focus on making good use of the current state finances, and that any tax increase should be decided on a longer-term basis.

Meanwhile, the Institute for Democracy and Policies of the DUP announced the guidelines for its presidential pledges on employment, social economy, social unrest, livelihood and dissatisfaction toward politics. The institute highlighted on revamping the current system by critically evaluating the incumbent ruling camp.

“The (key goal of ‘Healing Korea’) is to revive the people’s economy that had been damaged for the past four years under the conservative governance of President Lee Myung-bak and the Saenuri Party led by Park Geun-hye,” said Rep. Byun Jae-ill, president of the institute, at a press conference. He added that the new catchphrase was conjured up for the sake of better PR effect.

In order to create more jobs, Byun said social enterprises will be fostered, while introducing obligatory employment of the youth by the public organizations and a gradual volunteer military system.

For a healthy social economic ecosystem, the DUP suggested blocking unfair acts by large businesses and reviving the system to designate endemic business types for smaller businesses.

The institute also suggested preemptive input of public funds to alleviate burden on the so-called “house poor,” an indigenous term used to describe the mid-income bracket suffering from high housing debt, and vowed to eradicate discrimination against irregular workers.

“Although we have previously proposed a future vision for economic democratization and universal welfare, it appeared no different from those of the Saenuri Party because Park Geun-hye used the same phrase although the content was different,” Byun said, explaining the origin behind “Healing Korea.”

Byun added that the proposals will be further discussed with the party’s policy-planning team to be finalized later with the future presidential candidate.

By Lee Joo-hee (jhl@heraldcorp.com)