President Lee wants early parliamentary consent on new student loan system

By Lee Chi-dong
SEOUL, Jan. 6 (Yonhap) -- President Lee Myung-bak expressed regret Wednesday over
the National Assembly's delay in passing a bill designed to help poor college
students with their tuition payments, his aides said.

Lee, who worked to support himself while in business school, has been pushing for
legislation of the so-called Income Contingent Loan (ICL) system, aimed at
allowing students to take out state guaranteed college loans to be repaid once
they land jobs.
But a related bill is still pending at the National Assembly, with rival parties
locked in a protracted debate over politically-sensitive issues such as the
government's move to revise an existing plan to create a new administrative town
south of Seoul and a campaign to remake the nation's four major rivers.
In the first emergency economic meeting this year held at the presidential
office, Education Minister Ahn Byong-man said it would be impossible to implement
the system starting in the first semester as scheduled, given the time period
necessary for relevant procedures and preparations, according to presidential
spokesman Park Sun-kyoo.
In response, the president was quoted as saying, "It is very regrettable, since
many students and parents who have economic difficulties have been expecting (the
new system). Those who have been waiting for the legislation will be very
disappointed."
Lee asked local colleges to expand scholarships on a tentative basis during the
first semester and urged the government and political parties to do their best to
put the ICL system into force in the second semester.
Finance Minister Yoon Jeung-hyun and other senior economic officials also
attended the meeting.
lcd@yna.co.kr
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