Presidential Chief of Staff Kang Hoon-sik and Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong shake hands at Cheong Wa Dae during a public briefing on the three mega-projects, presided over by President Lee Jae Myung, on June 29. [Yonhap]
Presidential Chief of Staff Kang Hoon-sik and Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong shake hands at Cheong Wa Dae during a public briefing on the three mega-projects, presided over by President Lee Jae Myung, on June 29. [Yonhap]

Presidential Chief of Staff Kang Hoon-sik said Saturday that the Lee Jae Myung administration plans to establish a "future response fund" to channel additional tax revenue into investment for future generations.

Kang made the remarks at a senior ruling party-government consultative meeting held that afternoon at the prime minister's official residence in Samcheong-dong, Jongno-gu. "At this critical juncture that will determine the future of South Korea, we must not squander the additional tax revenue generated by the semiconductor boom and other factors," he said.

He went on to say the government intends to use the fund to make bold investments in the country's future — including support for the "three mega-projects," creating new engines of growth, addressing K-shaped polarization, and providing housing, startup and employment support for young people in their 20s and 30s.

"Establishing the future response fund will lay the cornerstone for realizing an irreplaceable South Korea," Kang added, urging close cooperation between the ruling party and the government to move the initiative forward swiftly.

Kang also addressed the three mega-projects, describing them as an effort to design new growth engines that will shape the country's trajectory over the next 20 to 30 years. "The entire world is staking its survival on the AI revolution, and this project is about designing the new growth engines that will determine South Korea's future for the next two to three decades," he said.

He went on to say the three mega-projects represent a paradigm shift in balanced national development through public-private cooperation — moving away from the conventional approach of dispersing the same industries across the country and instead building world-class industrial clusters based on each region's strengths.

"Just as the United States has Silicon Valley and the Texas semiconductor belt, we too must build an AI-semiconductor innovation ecosystem suited to each region's industrial base and potential, going beyond the limits of the Greater Seoul area," Kang said. "That is the path to surviving the global AI-semiconductor competition and, further, to leading the world."

He also pledged that the government would actively embrace corporate demands and provide full support to help advanced industries — including biotech and aerospace, in addition to semiconductors — achieve a new leap forward in the regions. "If local governments devise development plans suited to their regional characteristics, the central government will actively respond and ensure that locally driven growth becomes a reality," he said.


sang@heraldcorp.com