The government has unveiled a budget that deserves more scrutiny than applause. The proposed 2027 spending plan amounts to 820.9 trillion won ($562 billion) — 93 trillion won, or 12.8 percent, larger than this year’s budget. It is the biggest expansion on record. The government calls it an investment in Korea’s future. The numbers suggest something less reassuring: a government spending spree financed on the assumption that today’s semiconductor boom will continue indefinitely. President Lee Jae Myung has championed an expanded fiscal role, promising a “productive virtuous cycle” in which public spending raises potential growth, narrows inequality and prepares Korea for the future. At the heart of the plan is a new 162.3 trillion-won Future Response Fund, supposedly designed to channel resources into strategic industries and emerging technologies. There is nothing inherently wrong with fiscal expansion. Korea needs investment in artificial intelligence (AI), semiconductors, energy security, infrastructure and research. But the test of a budget is not what the government call
Three regional universities picked to receive up to W100b to close gap with Seoul National University