His administration calls the project "New Start 2008" and it promises to help those with bad credit get a new beginning in life by letting them apply their national pension funds to paying down their debt.

The government expects some 290,000 people to benefit from this bailout program. Project "New Start" also aims to breathe life into the country's traditional markets.

On the last Saturday of each month, the government will dispatch civil servants to the country's markets to take the pulse of conditions there, what President Lee likes to call the "on-the-spot atmosphere."

Also under the economic revival project, the government is setting aside W1 trillion annually (US$1=W977) to support the self-employed.

The list of beneficiaries goes on -- more robust insurance coverage for temp workers, feed aid for struggling farmers, and lower credit card service fees for small businesses.

They're all part of the new government's grand plan to lighten the economic load on society's less-privileged.

Arirang News