President Lee Myung-bak pinpointed a high chance of the real economy lapsing into a recession and underscored the need for cautious preparation for the slump and close cooperation among ministries, at Cheong Wa Dae Thursday (Jan. 8).

At the first emergency economic council held in an underground "situation room," Lee said the weekly meeting should collect urgent agendas that necessitate immediate deliberation and approval by the council.

The meeting lasted for 2 hours in the early morning, and was attended by about 20 key economic officials, including the chairman of the Financial Services Commission, the central bank governor and Finance and Economy Minister.

The council mainly dealt with financial support plans for small- and medium sized companies. President Lee said the difficulties felt by SMEs and households should be fully reflected in the council''s agendas and its policy-making.

Lee also cautioned against the policymakers'' blind obedience to statistics. When figuring people''s livelihoods, the government should take a close and personal approach and should not be led only by numbers shown in reports, said the President.

At the council meeting, Jun Kwang-woo, the Financial Services Commission chairman, briefed on support plans for SMEs and pending issues about households having difficulty borrowing money, followed by in-depth discussions among participants.

According to the council, the government this year will inject a total of 50 trillion won (US$37.6 billion) to support SMEs and 60 percent of it will be spent in the first half of the year. The government will also increase financial support for debt-ridden small business.

President Lee emphasized collaboration between politicians and businessmen in efforts to recover from the financial turmoil and also asked for big businesses and SMEs to cultivate a win-win ambience by the former paying on time for goods received from the latter. He also asked officials to make sure that capital injection for New Year''s Day (Jan. 26) will proceed as planned.