South Korea's top economic policymaker said Friday that the government will continue its push to restructure ailing sectors such as shipbuilding and shipping in order to help Asia's fourth-largest economy take another leap in the future.

"The government has been implementing corporate restructuring schemes as they are not an undeniable task for the survival of the economy and a future growth," Finance Minister Yoo Il-ho said during a minister-level meeting.

"The corporate restructuring is the process of shaking off accumulated shoddy practices and forging a future-oriented path, and we can produce some tangible results by constantly pursuing it," he said.

The minister said the government is working to map out details of the corporate restructuring plans for the shipbuilding, shipping, steelmaking and petrochemicals sectors.

As part of the moves, the government will speed up the restructuring of such shaky sectors as the shipbuilding and the shipping, the minister said.

Earlier, the government said it will place orders for more than

250 ships, worth about 11 trillion won ($9.59 billion), with domestic shipyards by 2020, as the two sectors have been suffering from massive losses due to a global slowdown and contracting demand.

South Korean shipbuilders have been under severe financial strain since the 2008 global economic crisis, which sent new orders tumbling amid a glut of vessels and tougher competition from Chinese rivals.

The country's top three shipyards -- Hyundai Heavy Industries, Samsung Heavy Industries Co. and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. -- suffered a combined operating loss of 8.5 trillion won last year. The loss was due largely to increased costs stemming from a delay in the construction of offshore facilities and an industrywide slump, with Daewoo Shipbuilding alone posting a 5.5 trillion-won loss.

The shipbuilders have recently drawn up sweeping self-rescue programs worth 11 trillion won in desperate bids to overcome the protracted slump and mounting losses.

The country's so-called Big 3 shipyards plan to cut their workforces to some 42,000 by 2018 from the current 62,000 with their combined docks to be reduced to 24 from the current 31.

Hyundai Heavy will spin off its non-shipbuilding businesses, such as wind power and other alternative energy-related businesses, and Samsung Heavy will sell property such as hotels, while Daewoo Shipbuilding plans to cut 5,500 jobs by 2018.

The government also said earlier it will extend as much as 6.5 trillion won in fresh financing to help boost shipping companies' competitiveness. The financial aid package also came as the collapse of Hanjin Shipping Co., South Korea's No. 1 shipper, has caused a worldwide logistics disruption and a drop in cargo handled at the country's seaports. (Yonhap)