Lee pitches future-oriented fund as he seeks parliamentary support for record-high budget

President Lee Jae Myung highlighted the need for a proposed 162 trillion won ($120.5 billion) fund to be created to secure momentum for growth and ensure stable fiscal management, during his speech at the National Assembly on Monday.

The “future-oriented fund,” backed by windfall tax revenue from the semiconductor boom, is part of next year’s record-high 820.9 trillion won budget, for which he sought parliamentary approval.

Lee said the new fund would focus on four priorities — support for young people, future growth engines, regional economies, and education and skills development.

He outlined related spending plans, including 21.3 trillion won for artificial intelligence (AI) and three megaprojects, along with 13.8 trillion won for 10 next-generation strategic technology fields, while pledging expanded welfare support to ensure the benefits of growth reach more people.

“The new fund to respond to future challenges will provide a platform for strategic investment to boost the economy’s growth potential, and also a mechanism to keep public finances stable as tax revenue fluctuates more widely,” the president said.

“By focusing investment on these four priorities, we will narrow deep divides in our society and build a stronger foundation for growth and development.”

Explaining the aims of the 2027 budget, Lee called for prosperity shared by all people, regions and businesses, rather than concentrated among a privileged few, noting that inequality and polarization were deepening despite Korea’s economic recovery.

He cited 3.8 percent economic growth in the first half, annual exports approaching $1 trillion, per capita gross national income projected to exceed $40,000 and forecasts of the first back-to-back rise in Korea’s potential growth rate in more than four decades.

Despite these signs of recovery, he said young people still struggle to find their first jobs, small business owners face mounting difficulties, regional economies lag and many households remain under financial strain.

“The 2027 budget proposal thus aims to secure Korea’s future as an indispensable, leading nation and ensure that national growth leads to better lives for our people,” the president said.

Building on Korea’s greatly enhanced global standing and economic strength, Lee said that the government has focused investment on future growth engines and narrowing disparities “to lay a solid foundation for a major leap forward and ensure everyone shares fairly in the opportunities and benefits of growth.”

He expressed hope that the three core initiatives covering jobs, financial support for citizens and housing stability, which his administration is pursuing in its second year, would help the three megaprojects — semiconductors, physical AI and AI data centers — and the seven SEED initiatives for future technologies to deliver greater results. SEED stands for “strategic emerging engines for disruptive innovation.”

On AI and new growth engines, Lee pledged bold investment, noting that the 21.3 trillion won earmarked for AI and the three megaprojects is nearly double this year’s amount.

As for the 10 next-generation strategic technology fields, Lee explained that the 13.8 trillion won is allocated to nurture new growth engines to follow semiconductors.

On expanded welfare support, the president said eligible recipients will automatically receive major benefits next year without having to apply, while a record 6.7 percent increase in the income benchmark used for about 60 welfare programs will broaden assistance.

Maximum monthly livelihood benefits for a four-person household would rise to 2.21 million won, alongside higher pensions for low-income older people, more senior jobs and broader disability pension coverage.

The president asked lawmakers to approve next year’s budget proposal and accompanying legislation by Dec. 2, the legally mandated deadline.

After Lee’s speech, the ruling Democratic Party of Korea described the proposal as “a budget to prepare Korea’s future,” stressing it will work to pass the budget bill by the legally set deadline.

The main opposition People Power Party (PPP), however, called it a “declaration of war on the people to announce it would deplete state coffers by using taxpayers’ money like it is Lee’s own,” according to a statement by senior spokesperson Park Sung-hoon.

When Lee arrived at the Assembly for the speech, PPP members staged a rally at the lobby with pickets reading “1,400 trillion won in state debt plus 162 trillion won in future-oriented funds that will be future debt.”

It was Lee’s fourth budget address since taking office, following speeches on supplementary budgets in June 2025 and April this year, as well as the 2026 budget in November last year.

The proposed 2027 budget is 12.8 percent larger than this year’s, which was already the biggest on record.