President Lee Jae Myung Nov. 4 delivers an administrative policy speech on next year's budget at the plenary chamber of the National Assembly in Seoul's Yeongdeungpo-gu District. (Office of the President)

By Xu Aiying

President Lee Jae Myung on Nov. 4 called his administration's budget bill for next year "the first" for the country "to open an era of artificial intelligence" (AI), asking for active cooperation from the National Assembly for approval.

He said this in his policy speech to the legislature at the plenary chamber that day on the bill at the National Assembly building in Seoul's Yeongdeungpo-gu District, adding, "Next year will be a historic starting point for opening the era of AI and preparing for the next 100 years of the Republic of Korea."

Stressing the urgency of AI transformation, President Lee announced a 2026 budget of KRW 728 trillion, up 8.1% from this year.

He added, "A combined KRW 10.1 trillion will go into a major transformation so that the country becomes one of the world's top three AI powers, with KRW 2.6 trillion of this amount to go toward introducing AI in all aspects of industry, life and public services and KRW 7.5 trillion to foster talent and build infrastructure."

"To emerge as a global leader in physical AI, we will focus investment in crucial projects using the nation's outstanding manufacturing capacity and data," he added. "We will inject KRW 6 trillion over the next five years to accelerate AI transformation centered on key sectors such as robotics, cars, shipbuilding, home appliances, semiconductors and plants."

Turning to human resource development and construction of core infrastructure, President Lee said, "We will develop 11,000 highly skilled personnel to raise our AI competitiveness and support the public's proactive use of AI through customized education to each generation."

"We will purchase another 15,000 high-performance graphic processing units (GPU), a core component that decides competitiveness in the AI era, to secure the government's target of 35,000 units ahead of schedule."

On investment in cultural content, he said, "We will raise the K-content Fund by KRW 200 billion for investment in the culture and content industries."

"To 'boom up' Korean food and beauty trends linked to Hallyu (Korean Wave), we will greatly expand export vouchers and loan support and raise support for all stages of the value chain ranging from production to sales and distribution."

The budget bill requested KRW 66.3 trillion for defense and KRW 5.5 trillion for the prevention of and quick response to disasters.

xuaiy@korea.kr