[2025 Budget] Government Allocates 100 Billion Won for APEC Summit

Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Next Year's Budget Plan Set at 4.3 Trillion Won
Preparing for APEC Chairmanship... 100 Billion Won for Summit
Increase in Free ODA... Realizing a Global Hub Nation

The government has allocated a budget of over 100 billion won to prepare for next year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, which South Korea will chair. Additionally, the official development assistance (ODA) budget has been expanded to realize the vision of becoming a Global Pivot State (GPS) and to contribute to the international community befitting the nation’s status.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the 29th, next year’s budget proposal is set at 4.3194 trillion won, a 3.1% increase from this year’s 4.1905 trillion won. The Ministry explained that it focused on tasks to realize the Global Pivot State and on preparing for the successful hosting of the APEC summit and the Korea-Central Asia summit scheduled for next year.

Seoul Ministry of Foreign Affairs Building

The budget for the APEC summit to be held next year in Gyeongju, Gyeongbuk Province, was set at 100.8 billion won, about 40 times higher than this year’s 2.5 billion won.

As part of the 'Korea-Central Asia K Silk Road Cooperation Initiative' announced last June, 6.9 billion won was allocated for the first-ever 2025 Korea-Central Asia summit.

Furthermore, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ grant-type ODA budget was slightly increased to 2.8488 trillion won from this year’s 2.7925 trillion won. Contributions to international organizations were allocated 826.2 billion won, more than 100 billion won higher than this year’s 718.3 billion won. South Korea will continue its second year as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) next year.

Other newly allocated items include 1.2 billion won for the Economic Diplomacy Field Internship Program, which provides young people with opportunities to experience economic diplomacy firsthand, and 10.6 billion won for building an intelligent diplomatic security platform to innovate the way diplomatic work is conducted.