South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups on Monday held the Korea-Singapore AI Connect Summit at the Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore on Monday local time, on the occasion of President Lee Jae-myung (이재명)'s state visit. The ministries moved to build an AI cooperation framework with Singapore.

The SME ministry plans to set up the government's first offshore global parent fund in Singapore in the second half of this year and expand it in stages to $300 million by 2030. The fund will focus on investing in promising startups in both countries in AI and deep tech, and will connect global investors with South Korean and Asian startups.

The science ministry will launch an international joint research programme in AI and digital fields worth a total of 50 billion won over five years from 2027, and will give priority consideration to cooperation with Singapore. This year, the Institute for Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation (IITP) and Singapore's AI Singapore (AISG), dedicated agencies for Korea-Singapore AI R&D, are set to jointly begin planning research projects.

The two countries will also pursue the creation of the Korea-Singapore AI Alliance, a strategic cooperation framework spanning the public and private sectors. It will focus on jointly fostering AI startups, conducting joint research on next-generation AI, and exchanges of talent and companies.

Seven AI-related memorandums of understanding were also signed between companies and institutions from the two countries at the event. They include AI research cooperation between KAIST Graduate School of AI and the National University of Singapore (NUS) School of Computing, autonomous driving cooperation between Autonomous A2Z and NCS, SMRT and Tong Tar, AI HPC infrastructure cooperation between Rableup and PTCsys, AI research and education cooperation between Rableup and Knovel, and public safety cooperation between the National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA) and Singapore's Home Team Science and Technology Agency (HTX).

Bae Kyoung-hoon (배경훈), deputy prime minister and minister of science and ICT, said Singapore is one of the best partners for cooperation in AI, with world-class research conditions and an investment ecosystem. He said the government will actively support efforts so the two countries can create synergy by fully advancing cooperation based on their respective strengths in AI talent, companies and technology.

SME Minister Han Sung-sook (한성숙) said Singapore is the best gateway for South Korean ventures and startups to make a global leap. She said the government will support them by building a venture investment platform so South Korean ventures and startups and investors can smoothly expand globally.