TNAG-0789-FCO40-993-Development-of-social-policy-in-Hong-Kong-proposed-contribut-1978 — Page 43

Ref: 212/1

BU} Creek,

R&R

Miss P M Wills

1/%

070

RESTRICTED

Hong Kong and General Department Foreign and Commonwealth Office

BRITISH EMBASSY

SEOUL

71

76

See 23+26

28 September 1978

HKK 234/1

RECEIVED BARTONERY RO. 51 10 OCT 1978

INDEX

KETRY

•cron Takken

:

Dear Miss Wills,

SOCIAL SECURITY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE REPUBLIC OF KOREA

no

1. Thank you for your enquiry of 7 September about the ROK government's plans to bring in a comprehensive National Insurance Scheme.

2. Your Department will certainly hold a copy of the massive report by a fact-finding team from Hong Kong which visited several Asian countries including the ROK last Autumn. Their subject was labour and social affairs and their report contains a good deal of up-to-date material on the ROK, including references to the likely implementation of nationwide insurance and pension schemes.

·

3. As you may know, the implementation of a social security programme in Korea was for many years a low priority, government policy being first and foremost to establish a sound economy. The 1960s and early 1970s did see the creation of a number of small-scale benefit schemes covering limited categories of people but the implementation of nationwide schemes was shelved.

4. Now that the economy is on a sound footing there is every reason to expect that considerable progress will be made in the development of an integrated social security and welfare system. Indeed this is one of the principal goals of the current 1977-1981 Five Year Economic Development Plan, which aims inter alia at:

(i)

the gradual expansion of social insurance programmes;

(ii) the expansion of public assistance;

(iii) the expansion of national relief support;

(iv) the reinforcement of social welfare services.

The attached copy of the relevant section in the Plan gives you some idea of what these projects involve.

5.

A start was made in January 1977 with the introduction of a free medical care programme (ii above) for some 2 million needy people, about half of whom had actually benefited from the new scheme by the end of the year. July 1977 then saw the implementation of a compulsory medical insurance system (i above) for enterprises employing 500 people or more, through which by the end of the year some 1 million employees

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