In his National Assembly budget speech, President Lee Jae-myung said the ‘Future Response Fund’, created from extra tax revenue from the semiconductor export boom, will concentrate on four areas: youth, future growth engines, regions, and education and talent. The fund's total size was not confirmed in the reporting.
According to the Kyunghyang Shinmun on the 2nd, Lee's speech on next year's budget focused on moving past ‘K-shaped growth’, in which gains concentrate in certain regions, classes and companies. He put forward a ‘great shift to growth for everyone’ in which opportunity and growth are spread evenly.
광고 문의 · 300×250A fund built on extra tax revenue, spent in four directions
The Future Response Fund is newly created and financed by additional tax revenue from the semiconductor export boom. Its stated principle is to concentrate spending on securing growth drivers and narrowing gaps. The four focus areas are youth, future growth engines, regions, and education and talent.
The fund fits with the plan to push ‘three mega projects’ and ‘three livelihood projects’ together. The mega projects are semiconductors, physical AI and AI data centers, with 21.3 trillion won budgeted, nearly double this year. The livelihood projects are housing, jobs and financial aid for ordinary people.
Related figures in the budget
Next year's total spending is 820.9 trillion won, up 12.8% and a record. The government says it abolished more than 2,100 programs and restructured 107.2 trillion won across over 6,400 projects. Next-10 strategic technologies get 13.8 trillion won, and R&D including seven SEED projects 39.5 trillion won.
Regional growth and decentralization gets 33 trillion won, more than double this year, and defense about 73 trillion won, up 8.2%. How the fund will operate within this total and how much each area gets were not given in the reporting and remain unconfirmed. The partisan fight over the budget was covered in yesterday's politics article.
