Finance ministry's Huh touts digital infrastructure investment at APEC meeting

South Korea's finance ministry said Wednesday that Deputy Finance Minister Huh Jang put digital infrastructure investment at the center of the country's message to his Asia-Pacific counterparts, using a Hong Kong gathering to present public capital as a catalyst for private funding.

Speaking at the APEC finance ministers' meeting, Huh pointed to the National Growth Fund and the country's sovereign wealth fund as examples of how public money can draw in private investment. He also promoted the Incheon Plan, the regional infrastructure investment and cooperation roadmap that Korea led in launching in Incheon, and which was taken up again at this year's meeting in Hong Kong.

On the sidelines, Huh held bilateral talks with his counterparts from New Zealand, Canada and China, as well as senior officials from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. With New Zealand, he discussed cooperation in advanced fields including artificial intelligence and ways to work together on supply chains to manage geopolitical risk. With Canada, he shared the two countries' policy directions on establishing a strategic sovereign wealth fund and praised progress in supply chain cooperation, including in critical minerals, agreeing to widen their economic cooperation on that basis.

Huh thanked China for leading the finance ministers' meeting successfully as this year's APEC chair and proposed continued economic and financial cooperation at multilateral forums including APEC and the Group of 20. China's side responded that it had been able to close this year's meeting successfully by building on the achievements of last year's chair, Korea, and expressed hope for further development of bilateral relations.

Huh told OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann that Korea's real gross domestic product was expected to grow in the 3 percent range this year, pointing to a firm recovery. Cormann replied that the OECD views Korea's 2026 economic outlook positively, according to the ministry.

In talks with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Huh focused on expanding the bank's recruitment of highly skilled Korean professionals and on infrastructure investment cooperation between Korean companies and the lender. AIIB President Zou Jiayi said the bank would continue to deepen its partnership with Korea.