South Korea is working with six multilateral development banks, including the World Bank, to bring their AI cooperation centres together in a hub on South Korean soil, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Lee Hyoung-il said on 20 October. Speaking at the three-day Global AI and Digital Summit as it opened in Seoul, Lee said the aim was a global “AI basic society” in which no country or individual misses out on AI’s benefits, Yonhap reported. The proposal would give the banks a shared base for AI cooperation with developing countries.
Key points
- Lee said South Korea is working with six multilateral development banks to establish an AI hub in the country.
- The finance ministry put attendance at about 900 people from about 160 countries, according to Yonhap.
- Lee and World Bank President Ajay Banga discussed AI cooperation and power supplies for developing countries on 19 October.
- A South Korean-financed World Bank fund supports developing countries’ adoption of AI, The Asia Business Daily reported.
Seoul hosts the World Bank summit
The summit is an annual World Bank Group gathering of ministers and private-sector representatives. It is taking place in Seoul for the first time outside Washington, D.C., The Asia Business Daily reported. Discussions cover how AI and digital technologies could create jobs, raise productivity and expand growth opportunities in developing countries. The agenda also includes digital access, trustworthy AI use, agriculture and healthcare.
Yonhap reported that the science ministry and the World Bank co-hosted the event. The Asia Business Daily reported that the Ministry of Finance and Economy and the World Bank Group jointly hosted it.
The finance ministry put attendance at about 900 people from about 160 countries, making it the largest gathering since the World Bank began the annual event in 2024. AI Affairs reported Pakistan’s preparations to sign a Digital and AI Compact at the Seoul summit.
Lee’s plan for six bank centres
Lee presented the proposed hub as a way to bring the banks’ AI cooperation centres into South Korea. His stated goal reaches beyond placing institutions in one country: he said their work should help ensure that people and countries can benefit from AI. That is the purpose he attached to the phrase “global AI basic society”, rather than the name of a rule announced at the summit.
He grounded the offer in South Korea’s experience of receiving international aid during its development and later helping other countries. Lee said technology had changed the economy and people’s lives in South Korea, and that the country wanted to draw on its capabilities to support developing nations’ AI transitions. Under the plan he described, multilateral development banks would be partners in that effort, with their cooperation centres brought together in South Korea.
Lee met World Bank President Ajay Banga on 19 October to discuss sharing South Korea’s AI experience and capabilities with developing countries. They also discussed using South Korean nuclear energy technology to help provide stable power and support sustainable growth in those countries. According to the finance ministry, they stressed that industrial development should create opportunities and jobs for young people, alongside continued work on inclusive development.
World Bank fund backs AI projects
The World Bank Global AI and Digital Knowledge Center opened in December 2025. Lee said a World Bank AI and Digital Fund financed by the South Korean government helps developing countries adopt AI solutions and build capacity to use the technology across sectors. He also said South Korea would use its K-AI Package to identify projects suited to individual countries’ needs and circumstances. These are existing channels for cooperation alongside the proposed hub.
Lee linked that work to the World Bank’s “@A Billion” goal of providing digital access and opportunities to 1 billion people by 2030. At the summit, he visited an exhibition on the first project approved under the Digital Fund since the Knowledge Center was established. The project concerns a medicines-tracking system built in Mozambique using a South Korean company’s technology, with plans to extend it to neighbouring countries.
The project is expected to use AI analysis to identify suspicious transactions and improve forecasts of demand. It is also expected to improve the efficiency of medicine distribution and management as the tracking system expands.
