South Korea's Finance Minister-designate Yoon Jeung-hyun pledged to launch new policies to stimulate the weakened economy, the Korea Herald reported on Monday.

The gist of the new policies lies in creating a supplementary budget, deregulating the real estate market, supporting the service industry, and enhancing employment in the public sector, the Korea Herald said.

At National Assembly's hearing held on Friday, Yoon officially said that he would approve of an extra budget. It is expected that the extra budget would hit a record high of 10 trillion won (US$7.2 billion), the Korea Herald added.

The extra budget is intended for funding the population in poverty and for the nation's new growth engine industries.

Yoon's economic team plans to deregulate the real estate industry as well, for they found the industry is critical in revitalizing domestic demand.

The new finance minister also intends to launch policies to boost the service industry. His policies, aiming at promoting competitions within industries, would include compelling medical, educational, and law service companies to disclose their charges and related information, according to the Korea Herald.

Among Yoon's new plans is to enhance public firms' employment of more interns, from current level of around 50,000 to around 70,000.

Yoon earlier mentioned at the hearing that the South Korean economy has a high chance of continuing to take a downturn.

"The government's 3-percent growth target seems a very distant goal. The figure should be revised. We will announce when and how we would revise it, after consulting with related ministries," he said.

He is expected to take office early this week when the National Assembly confirms his appointment, replacing Kang Man-soo.

(Xinhua News Agency February 9, 2009)