Park Hong-keun: "Future Response Fund accumulates regardless of which administration is in power"

Finance Minister Park Hong-keun said on the 23rd, during a comprehensive audit of the National Assembly's Strategy and Finance Committee, that the Future Response Fund is structured to continue accumulating regardless of a change in government. When People Power Party Rep. Kang Min-kuk asked how funding for ongoing projects would be secured if tax revenue declines amid a worsening semiconductor cycle, Minister Park replied, "Tax revenue sometimes comes in heavy and sometimes light." Asked whether he believed the fund would remain necessary even after a change of administration, he emphasized, "It operates independently of whoever holds power." Minister Park explained that the Future Response Fund was created at his initiative, with the Ministry of Economy and Finance putting forward the proposal.

Earlier, on the 22nd, the Korea Institute of Public Finance announced that under the fund's current trend-based formula, accumulated contributions could plunge to around 100 trillion won by 2028, arguing that institutional improvements are needed through a three-year average method adjusted for growth rates.

Responding to Democratic Party Rep. Kim Tae-nyeon's remark that a sovereign wealth fund should support future investment and fiscal stability, Minister Park said, "The purpose of the Future Response Fund differs from that of a sovereign wealth fund." He added, "The Future Response Fund was not established on the concept of generating national wealth by managing surplus funds," saying it "was established as a fiscal stabilization mechanism and for strategic investment purposes."