The government has taken the first steps of creating an exclusive agency to take oversee the nation’s policies on immigration and multiculturalism, officials said Sunday.

The Ministry of Strategy and Finance gave public notice of a bid to analyze foreign immigration agencies and study measures to attract a talented workforce from abroad.

The ministry plans to streamline immigration policy over the long term, starting with study of the immigration offices of advanced countries such as Germany, the U.K., Canada and Australia.

“Considering the social cost caused by the decline of the productive population and the growing number of immigrants, we will estimate the size of necessary work force across industries. At the same time, we will seek ways to attract qualified foreign workers in the new growth engine sectors,” said a ministry official.

With foreign nationals here surpassing 1 percent of the total population, there has been an ongoing request to unify the nation’s disparate immigration policies and support programs for multicultural families.

The Finance Ministry has led the discussion in preparation for a potential lack of workers amid a falling birthrate and aging population.

In January, former Finance Minister Yoon Jeung-hyun, who has now been replaced in June by Bahk Jae-wan, also emphasized the importance of the nation’s having an exclusive state-run agency for immigration policy.

“Fragmented approaches cannot handle the issues of the falling birthrate and aging population. We need to set up a separate institution that will respond to the issue comprehensively,” he said.

Yoon added that Korea needs to attract talented foreign workers more actively by abolishing the current quota system, saying that the rapid aging of Japan was the result of the country’s refusal to accept immigrants.

As part of the long-term plan, the Finance Ministry said it will cooperate with rated government offices such as the Justice Ministry and Gender Equality and Family Ministry.

“We have yet to discuss the details of the new agency. But after collecting the public opinion about its necessity, we will look into the issue over the long term,” said the official.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)