Ministry of Planning and Budget holds town hall meeting on long-term national strategy

Citizens invited to propose future agenda items on AI transition, inequality and regional decline

Park Hong-keun, minister of the Ministry of Planning and Budget [Ministry of Planning and Budget]
Park Hong-keun, minister of the Ministry of Planning and Budget [Ministry of Planning and Budget]

The government has formally launched an effort to design a long-term national vision and development roadmap for South Korea in 2045, with citizens playing a central role in shaping the agenda.

The Ministry of Planning and Budget held a town hall meeting Wednesday at the Jeongdong 1928 Art Center in Jung-gu, Seoul, under the theme "2045: A Preview of the Future." The event was the first public engagement forum since the Korea 2045 Strategy Committee was launched on May 27.

About 80 people attended, including members of the general public — among them youth and teenagers — as well as private-sector experts from the Korea Development Institute and universities, officials from related ministries, and local government representatives. The government said the event was designed to go beyond simple policy briefings or opinion surveys, giving citizens a direct role in proposing future agenda items and participating in debate.

The town hall was structured around three sessions. The first looked back at South Korea's development and social changes over the past 80 years, and invited participants to suggest words they hoped would define 2045 — and words they hoped would disappear. The second featured expert presentations and public discussion on future growth engines and the shape of communities to come. The final session used interactive formats, including a policy trade-off game, to draw out participants' visions for the country's future.

Through these discussions, the government aims to develop medium- and long-term solutions to complex structural challenges including the AI transition, growing inequality and regional depopulation. The Ministry of Planning and Budget said these issues cannot be resolved by any single ministry or one-year policy cycle, and that it intends to establish a new model for national strategy-building — one designed together with the public.

"A strategy cannot be completed by the government's thinking alone," Minister Park Hong-keun said. "It must incorporate the concerns of young people, the burdens on parents, the difficulties of regions, the voices of businesses and workers on the ground, the worries of the elderly, and the hopes of the next generation — only then can a strategy truly connect with people's lives." Park added that the long-term national development strategy was about "setting the direction South Korea will take 20 years from now."

The ministry said it plans to build on the town hall meeting by expanding citizen-centered policy design and sustaining a broad discussion structure that draws in participants from diverse generations and social backgrounds.


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