President Lee Jae-myung (이재명) on Sunday explained the government’s 2027 budget plan in a National Assembly address. The plan totals 820.9 trillion won, up 12.8 percent from this year, and he asked parliament for cooperation.

He set out a plan to expand investment in AI and future growth engines and strengthen livelihood support so growth gains spread across the public.

In the address, Lee said South Korea must make a major shift to “growth for all”, rather than “growth for a few” in which opportunities and gains are concentrated in specific regions, classes and a small number of companies.

Total spending in next year’s budget drafted by the government is 820.9 trillion won, the largest on record. The government will restructure spending by 107.2 trillion won across 6,476 projects and create a future response fund to invest additional tax revenue in future growth engines and in youth, regional, and education and talent areas.

It will sharply expand investment in AI and future industries. It will spend 21.3 trillion won on three mega projects — semiconductors, physical AI and AI data centres — and on the AI sector, nearly doubling from this year.

The government will create a special account to boost semiconductor industry competitiveness and invest 2 trillion won to expand production foundations. It will also invest 500 billion won in on-site demonstrations of physical AI in eight core areas including manufacturing, smart factories and defence.

It will support 4.7 trillion won for a frontier AI development project aimed at securing global competitiveness for an independent AI model, a national strategic asset. It will also launch the “AI for all” project, including public AI agents that support public services from guidance to application.

The government set the R&D budget at 39.5 trillion won, up 4 trillion won from this year and the largest on record. It will also invest 13.8 trillion won in 10 next-generation strategic technology areas to lead future growth.

In livelihood policy, it set the youth budget at 43.3 trillion won, up 53.5 percent from this year. It will introduce an internship semester providing job experience before graduation for 60,000 university students and expand the number of people eligible for work experience, training and job search support to 720,000.

It will pay newlyweds 1 million won in marriage support and provide up to 20 million won in child welcome support upon childbirth. It will also create a basic child allowance by integrating the child allowance and parental benefit, paying a basic 200,000 won per month up to age 12.

It will also expand investment for balanced national development. It will spend 33 trillion won — more than double this year — on a major national land transformation and region-led growth, and it will begin moving 44 central government agencies in the Seoul metropolitan area to Sejong in phases starting next year.

The government set the defence budget at 73.3 trillion won, up 8.2 percent from this year. It will secure core capabilities including nuclear-powered submarines and the KF-21 and push to build a manned-unmanned complex system based on AI, robots and drones.

Lee said the key was execution and speed. He asked for parliament’s active cooperation so the 2027 budget plan and related bills can be finalised by the statutory deadline of Dec. 2.