Gov't, party agree to expand budget for state in S .Korea

The government and the ruling party agreed Tuesday to increase the budget for state-funded jobs for the elderly, women and the disabled next year, officials said. Rep. Hwang Woo-yea of the Grand National Party announced that the government agreed to set aside 9.4 trillion won (US$8.7 billion) as the budget for creating jobs for the underprivileged, compared with this year's 9 trillion won. The increase is expected to add about 20,000 more jobs to this year's 540,000. Hwang said that the two sides reached the agreement under a shared understanding that job creation is the best welfare policy. The government and the ruling party also agreed to expand the budget for programs to help high school graduates without college diplomas land jobs from this year's 562.9 billion won to 645.8 billion won next year.