The meaning of "if"

Dear teachers,

The following is a sentence excerpted from the transcript in the below.

"If past governments tried to create jobs and increase income, investment, and consumption through corporate growth, J-nomics changes the paradigm to put people first, investing in people to save corporations and improve the nation’s competitiveness."

I think the writer intended to say, "Even though past governments tried to create jobs~," or "While past governments tried to create jobs~."

What do you think of this ("if") to the eyes of the native speakers?

Thanks and best regards,

David Kim

Sources: http://world.kbs.co.kr/english/program/program_economyplus_detail.htm?No=6080

The Moon Jae-in government’s economic policy is called J-nomics, a portmanteau consisting of the

letter J from the president’s first name and economics. The biggest characteristic is that it breaks

away from past growth models, acknowledging the current low-growth phase as a reality, and tries to

resolve social polarization and unemployment within the framework. If past governments tried to create

jobs and increase income, investment, and consumption through corporate growth, J-nomics changes

the paradigm to put people first, investing in people to save corporations and improve the nation’s

competitiveness. In order to accomplish this, the government set up an additional budget of 10 trillion

won to create 810,000 jobs in the public sector. It also plans to strengthen national support for the

fourth industrial revolution, the sixth industrialization of new agriculture, and the culture, tourism, arts,

and physical education sectors. President Moon ordered that a job creation committee be established

as one of his first orders of business since taking office, showing how important the problem of

unemployment is to the Korean economy.