Gwangju City Council and Local Industry-Academia Groups Urge People Power Party to Stop Cutting AI Budget

The Gwangju City Council Artificial Intelligence (AI) Demonstration City Special Committee and 11 industry-academia-research councils in the Gwangju region issued a joint statement on November 25, urging the People Power Party to "withdraw its unreasonable claims and approve the AI budget proposal of the Lee Jaemyung administration as originally submitted."

Gwangju City Council Artificial Intelligence (AI) Demonstration City Special Committee Meeting. Photo by Yonhap News

They criticized, "Although the government has made a bold decision to invest 10.1 trillion won in AI in the 2026 main budget, the People Power Party is insisting on cuts during the National Assembly budget review, dismissing it as a 'so-called AI budget.'"

The AI Special Committee and the industry-academia-research organizations pointed out, "The objections raised by the People Power Party are a political offensive that ignores the urgency of the industrial field struggling at the forefront of global competition, and an act that undermines the nation's growth engine."

They continued, "Local regions, including Gwangju, are staking everything on transforming outdated industrial structures based on AI and breaking away from the Seoul metropolitan area's dominance. Reckless demands for budget cuts trample on the hopes for balanced regional development and the nation's future industries."

The organizations warned, "The repeated research and development (R&D) budget cuts during the Yoon Sukyeol administration led to the collapse of research sites and the outflow of talent. This mistake must not be repeated. If the AI budget is cut, the People Power Party will bear the historical responsibility, and we will hold them strictly accountable together with the citizens of Gwangju."

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