Koo Yoon-chul Presents 'Incheon Plan' at APEC Finance Ministers’ Meeting: Innovation, Finance, Fiscal Policy, and Opportunity

Innovation, Finance, Fiscal Policy, and Access and Opportunity for All

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Koo Yoon-chul presented the "Incheon Plan," which consists of innovation, finance, fiscal policy, and access and opportunity for all, at the 34th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Finance Ministers’ Meeting held on October 21. The Incheon Plan is a follow-up roadmap to the "Cebu Action Plan," which was adopted at the 2015 APEC Finance Ministers’ Meeting in the Philippines.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Koo Yoon-chul and Eduardo Pedrosa, Secretary General of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Secretariat, are sharing their views at the "Knowledge Sharing Program (KSP) Performance Sharing Conference" held at Inspire Resort in Jung-gu, Incheon on October 21, 2025. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung

In his opening remarks, Deputy Prime Minister Koo stated, "Over the past decade, the Cebu Action Plan has provided long-term direction for the APEC finance track. As the Cebu Action Plan concludes this year, we have been carefully refining our priorities and preparing a new five-year medium-term roadmap to better address today’s realities and challenges."

He explained, "The Incheon Plan is comprised of innovation, finance, fiscal policy, and access and opportunity for all. In particular, at this meeting, we decided to expand the scope of discussions on financial inclusion by establishing 'access and opportunity for all' as a separate pillar." Over the next five years, the member economy serving as the APEC chair will select and discuss annual agendas from among the topics presented in the Incheon Plan.

He noted, "This meeting is the largest and most important one held just before next week’s APEC Summit in Gyeongju. This year’s theme is the role of innovation, finance, and fiscal policy for sustainable growth." He went on to emphasize the importance of a major transformation toward artificial intelligence (AI) for innovation. "Korea is pursuing AI transformation as its top policy priority, driven by the urgency that applying AI across all sectors of society is the only solution to raise the country’s potential growth rate," he said. "AI will also be one of the key agenda items at next week’s summit."

Regarding digital finance, he stressed the need to balance the innovations and opportunities brought by AI. Deputy Prime Minister Koo said, "AI-based digital finance is rapidly spreading, and AI is also being used to eradicate voice phishing by leveraging big data. We must build a responsible financial ecosystem." He added, "We must ensure that financial access is guaranteed for vulnerable groups and remote areas."

On fiscal policy, he stated, "With limited resources, we must respond to traditional roles such as national defense, welfare, and education, as well as structural social challenges like population aging and climate change." He emphasized the need to "concentrate fiscal support on areas such as AI transformation to secure future growth engines and drive economic growth." He also added, "At the same time, we must enhance fiscal sustainability through multifaceted efforts, including restructuring expenditures, revising tax exemptions and reductions, and securing previously untaxed sources of revenue."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.