President Lee Jae-myung on the 13th, regarding changes in the global market due to advances in artificial intelligence (AI) technology and the government's response, said, "The issue is political capacity," adding, "It seems a society in which political groups compete to do well and build their own capacity, and a society where people relentlessly slander, hope only for others to fail, go so far as to hold rituals for someone's downfall, and even trip and obstruct others, really determines rise and fall."
On this day at Cheong Wa Dae, Lee presided over the National Fiscal Strategy Meeting and, after receiving reports on plans to support the AI industry from the Ministry of Planning and Budget, the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Ministry of Science and ICT, the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment (MCEE), and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, said, "A vast and tremendous change awaits us. This is a time when things could move in a good direction, or we could, if we are not careful, fall off a cliff."
Although Lee did not name a specific target, it appears aimed at recent criticism surrounding the three major megaprojects worth 4,700 trillion won announced by the government and corporations, such as "Honam favoritism" and "twisting corporations' arms for the (Democratic Party) convention." Earlier, Cheong Wa Dae released a plan in which Samsung Electronics and SK Group would invest 800 trillion won to build the "Gwangju semiconductor cluster (industrial complex)." The People Power Party says the projects are concentrated in Honam, the ruling camp's stronghold, and claims Cheong Wa Dae pressured corporations.
Lee said, "In the past, if the annual operating profit of listed companies was in the 200 trillion to 300 trillion range, that was considered strong, but now the operating profit of a single company exceeds 300 trillion," adding, "It is true that we are facing a situation we never imagined." He went on, "We are standing at the inflection point of whether this volatility is an opportunity or a crisis," adding, "The future of society changes completely depending on what mindset and capacity the leaders of that social community have. The issue is political capacity."
The meeting, attended by about 130 people from Cheong Wa Dae staff, government ministries, academia and research institutes, and civil society, was arranged to broadly discuss ways to use so-called "additional tax revenues." Expecting tax revenues to rise over the next several years thanks to a boom in the AI and semiconductor industries, the gist is to create the concept of "additional tax revenues," instead of "excess tax revenues" stipulated in the existing National Finance Act, and concentrate investment in future, youth, regions, and education. The government plans to soon draft a special law in the form of a government bill to newly specify uses for the revenues.