President Lee Jae Myung has called for bipartisan cooperation in the National Assembly to pass the government-proposed budget for next year, describing it as marking the era of artificial intelligence(AI) in South Korea. 

The president made the statement in an address at the Assembly on Tuesday, saying that the nation must build a highway for the AI era to open a future of growth and progress.

Lee said that the economy has escaped the crisis of last year's martial law declaration, and the stock index has surpassed four-thousand points, but that it’s far too soon to be complacent or satisfied and that a new AI era remains necessary.

The president said that the government has set total expenditures for next year at 728 trillion won, up eight-point-one percent from this year, and allocated ten-point-one trillion won to propel the country’s transformation into one of the world’s top three AI powerhouses.

He said that the amount is more than three times this year’s AI budget of three-point-three trillion won.