President Park Geun-hye on Tuesday called for bipartisan cooperation for a new takeoff of South Korea's economy by taking advantage of the coming second Middle East boom.
Park believes that the move by oil-rich Mideast countries to push to diversify their economic portfolios could offer new business opportunities for South Korean companies in such fields as health care, nuclear reactors as well as information and communications technology.
Park described the potential business opportunities as the second Middle East boom following the first one in the 1970s, when many Korean workers sent home their hard-earned cash from sweating at construction sites in the region. The remittances made great contributions to Korea's economic growth.
"I hope that the coming second Middle East boom ... will lead to an economic takeoff," Park said in a meeting with the heads of the rival political parties at the presidential office.
The comments came as Park briefed them on the outcome of her recent trip to four Gulf States -- Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
Moon Jae-in, head of the No. 1 opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy, told Park that his party will cooperate with the government if there is something his party needs to cooperate.
Still, Moon called on Park to take a series of steps to address the economic crisis, including a drastic hike in the nation's minimum wage.
The minimum wage for this year was set at 5,580 won ($4.98) per hour, a 7.1 percent rise from 2014.
Moon also called on Park to raise corporate taxes and to come up with measures to deal with rising household debts.
Outstanding household loans reached 1,029.3 trillion won at the end of December, spiking 27.6 trillion won from the previous quarter and accounting for most of the quarterly increase in household credit. The figure passed the 1,000 trillion won mark for the first time in the third quarter last year.
Moon also said Park and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un should meet this year as he offered bipartisan support for a potential summit.
Park's two liberal predecessors held summit talks with the then North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, the late father of the current leader Kim, in Pyongyang in 2000 and 2007, respectively. Kim Jong-il died of heart failure in 2011.
Inter-Korean relations are currently at one of their lowest points in many years.
It was not immediately clear how Park responded to Moon's requests.
The meeting lasted nearly two hours and it was their first formal talks since Moon was defeated by Park in the closely contested 2012 election. (Yonhap)
