Financial Services Commission Chairman Lee Eok-won (이억원) signed up on Thursday for the public participation national growth fund that went on sale that day, encouraging participation.

Lee visited NH NongHyup Bank's Government Complex Seoul branch on Thursday morning to complete the subscription process for the public participation growth fund. After personally going through the overall process, including investor profiling and reviewing the fund prospectus, he signed the subscription documents.

The public participation growth fund is a product designed to share with the general public the policy outcomes of the national growth fund promoted by the government. It is structured to invest in companies in advanced strategic industries such as semiconductors, artificial intelligence (AI), biotechnology, defence, and robotics.

Lee said the public participation growth fund would offer the public an attractive investment opportunity to share in the gains from the growth of future strategic industries and provide companies in advanced strategic industries with smoother access to funds needed for growth.

He also called the national growth fund an investment platform for future industries to overcome structural challenges facing the economy. He stressed that the public's valuable investment would become seeds for nurturing future growth engines.

Lee urged distributors to take care to prevent misselling at points of sale. He said the government would also monitor on-site conditions in real time and swiftly resolve any inconveniences during the subscription process.

The public participation growth fund will be available for subscription from Thursday through June 11 at 10 banks and 15 securities firms. It will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis and will close early if the allocation is exhausted.

Because it is a grade 1 high-risk investment product that does not guarantee principal, investors need to exercise caution. To subscribe, an investor must be classified as having an investment profile suitable for the product based on the investor profiling results.