President Yoon vows support for small businesses and markets

[Anchor]

President Yoon Suk Yeol has begun a full-scale effort to address polarization by urging his aides to come up with proactive domestic consumption and revitalization measures.

To support small business owners and self-employed individuals, he has promised to eliminate delivery fees for traditional markets and to establish measures to prevent no-show damages.

Reporter Lee Hyun-jun has the details.

[Report]

President Yoon Suk Yeol, who has set polarization resolution as the key policy direction for the latter half of his term.

He directed his aides to devise proactive domestic consumption and revitalization measures.

The intention is that in order to overcome polarization, domestic consumption must be revitalized, thus requiring more aggressive policies than currently in place.

This can also be interpreted as a sign that he will not be bound by the existing policy direction that emphasizes sound fiscal management.

At the same time, President Yoon promised specific support measures for self-employed individuals and small business owners by eliminating delivery fees for traditional markets.

This will be done through negotiations with delivery platform companies without additional financial input.

He also stated that the intermediary delivery fees for small businesses will be reduced by more than 30% over the next three years.

[President Yoon Suk Yeol: "(Delivery) intermediary fees are averaging 9.8%, which is so high that it’s bigger than the product itself. How can anyone do business like this?"]

To prevent no-show damages, he will establish dispute resolution standards and set up 90 centers for reporting malicious reviews.

President Yoon then visited a traditional market as his first on-site activity of the latter half of his term to encourage the merchants.

[President Yoon Suk Yeol: "The government is making efforts, but it takes a lot of time. Please trust us and do not lose your courage; keep your spirits up."]

Meanwhile, the presidential office announced that President Yoon and senior aides have donated 10% of their annual salaries to the Korean Red Cross again this year, following last year’s donation.

KBS News, Lee Hyun-jun.