At the close of the Invest Korea Summit in Seoul and the APEC CEO Summit in Gyeongju, Korea reaffirmed its strong commitment to innovation — not only in artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced industries,  but in building sustainable, future-ready partnerships.

Invest Korea Summit was held as part of the APEC Summit’s economic cooperation programme from October 30 to October 31 and achieved a record scale in both attendance and outcomes, including a record-high USD 1.21 billion in new investment declarations.

Korea Trade-Investment President, Kang Kyung Sung said, “This year’s Invest KOREA Summit served as an optimal platform not only for national investor relations but also for advancing Korea toward becoming one of the world’s top three AI powerhouses, promoting balanced regional development, and strengthening global investment cooperation.

With over 2000 participants, the goal was to showcase Korea’s strong competitiveness in AI and advanced industries, along with its attractive investment environment.

Held under the theme: Your partner for AI innovation, Invest Korea Summit 2025 focused on promoting global investment in Korea’s AI ecosystem.

Korea’s keynote speeches focused on industrial innovation and building global leadership for Korea through AI.

#InvestKoreaSummit under the theme Your Partner Innovation Korea. The goal is to showcase Korea’s strong competitiveness in AI and advanced industries. #sabcnews pic.twitter.com/4qoqZkg36q

— Busisiwe Radebe (@MaRadebeBS) October 30, 2025

Speaking to SABC News on the sidelines, Chris Naidoo – who has been doing business in Korea for 17 years – said delegates came to the Summit with high expectations, noting Korea’s remarkable inroads with AI and tariff situation.

Chris Naidoo a delegate at #InvestKoreaSummit says his expectations are the inroads with AI and tariff situation. #sabcnews pic.twitter.com/ZOLNRrONyv

— Busisiwe Radebe (@MaRadebeBS) October 30, 2025

Digital Divide

However, the digital divide was raised during a panel discussion, even though AI has been seen as reshaping industrial structures and investment trends.

Although there are many breakthroughs in the AI industry, in a panel discussion, Richard Bolwijn of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development spoke about a concern in the digital divide that is due to unequal access to the internet, devices and digital skills and looking at how other countries, such as in Africa and parts of Asia, can keep up with digital development.

“This is a very important topic for the UN Digital Compact that was concluded last year, which places bridging the digital divide among one of the important objectives for the United Nations. From the perspective of attracting foreign direct investment and project finance in digital infrastructure, and provides connectivity and digital services that provide access to services for populations or even digital equipment manufacturing that can help with industrial development in countries. It is becoming increasingly difficult for countries that are lower down on the development ladder to compete for new investment because it is more knowledge-intensive, more technology-intensive, and it can be hard for a country to become attractive for that kind of investment. We need to pay attention to through policy advice and through concrete support, derisking to help  countries to attract that kind of investing to advance in digital development.”Bolwijn explained.

Seven global companies participated in an investment declaration ceremony. The companies are in sectors such as semiconductors, future mobility, offshore wind power and K-culture-related content and food.