Lee So-young, nominee for Minister of SMEs and Startups, said on the 8th that she would quantify the operating burdens facing small business owners and self-employed individuals and create a roadmap to reduce them if appointed. She cited high interest rates, inflation, accumulated debt and delivery app fees, saying an order worth 20,000 Korean won can leave more than 6,000 Korean won going to delivery apps under various charges. Lee said the remaining revenue often fails to cover other expenses and the owner’s own labor costs. Her proposed approach would focus on changing the cost structure rather than relying only on financial assistance or individual support. She also said she would pursue coexistence measures with private delivery apps while reviewing ways to promote low-commission delivery apps. Lee criticized recent government spending on delivery fee coupons for public delivery apps as inefficient, arguing that simply subsidizing coupons would not persuade nonusers to download and use those services. If appointed, she said she would seek to streamline related budgets during the National Assembly’s deliberations and direct spending toward measures capable of producing 10 or 20 times greater effects from the same fiscal input. Lee said the Ministry of SMEs and Startups was considering countermeasures related to Homeplus and planned to announce specific measures. She also expressed regret over what she called sensational and malicious reporting on sponsorship and nomination allegations, and said she was offended by terms including "proxy sponsorship" and "nomination bribes." On support for her mother’s lease, Lee said helping her economically struggling mother was her duty as a child, but that she planned to report and pay gift tax to prevent further controversy.