Anchor: The nation’s economy is headlining campaign pledges unveiled by hopefuls in the June 3 presidential elections. Democratic Party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung vows to make South Korea a global economic powerhouse, while the People Power Party’s Kim Moon-soo promises to make South Korea a country that’s great to do business in. 

In the first installment of candidates’ campaign pledges, our Bae Joo-yon has more on their economic policies. 

Report: The presidential candidates of both the Democratic Party and the People Power Party have picked AI as one of the new growth engines vital to revive the economy. 

Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party and Kim Moon-soo of the People Power Party both vowed to make South Korea one of the world’s top three powers in terms of AI and to invest 100 trillion won to achieve that goal. 

That’s nearly 71 billion U.S. dollars.

Lee also vowed to build an AI data center to establish AI expressways and boost training to foster human resources. 

Kim, for his part, pledged to expand the enrollment quota of AI grad schools and software-focused universities while increasing labor and research costs to attract international AI talent. 

Also, to revitalize the economy, Lee proposed making South Korea one of the world’s top five powerhouses in terms of software by fostering the K-culture platform and achieving 50 trillion won in exports of cultural products. 

Kim, meanwhile, vowed to enact a basic law on free economic innovation, to scrap regulations on new technologies and industries and to foster future industries. 

Lee and Kim both promised changes to medical reforms that were pursued by the Yoon Suk Yeol government. 

Lee proposed a consultation committee on medical reforms, noting that the Yoon administration’s unilateral reforms ended in failure, while Kim said he will seek to establish a presidential committee on future medicine and create a consultative body comprising experts. 

The New Reform Party’s Lee Jun-seok vowed to eliminate unnecessary regulations and introduce a national system of regulatory standards to revitalize industries. 

He also vowed to promote the reshoring of companies abroad. 
Bae Joo-yon, KBS World Radio News.