This article was published on Signal, the Seoul Economic Daily's capital markets newsletter, at 17:11 on April 16, 2026.
Rep. Ahn Do-geol of the Democratic Party of Korea said that "private equity fund (PEF) managers must become engines of industrial transition," adding that "the National Assembly is doing its best to provide necessary legislation and institutional support so that PEFs can play a leading role in nurturing strategic industries."
Speaking at the SEK Invest Forum on the 16th, Rep. Ahn noted that domestic PEFs have entered a transitional period amid the era of artificial intelligence (AI) transformation. "I highly value the PEF industry's contribution to changing Korea's economic system over the past 20 years," he said, "but as industrial restructuring accelerates, PEFs must also transform from financial investors (FI) to strategic investors (SI) that lead innovation." He explained that it is important for PEFs to provide seed funding for advanced industries through innovation investment.
Introducing the direction domestic PEFs should take, Rep. Ahn emphasized that "while avoiding leverage-focused investments, the investment paradigm must shift toward value creation." He added, "Industries that will lead Korea's future, such as semiconductors, AI, bio, and data centers, cannot develop without medium- to long-term large-scale investment support, so domestic PEFs must take the lead in investing in future industries."
The role of responsible investment-type PEFs was also emphasized. "The responsible investment principles of PEFs must be institutionalized," he said. "Competition in the AI era is largely evolving into technological competition, but the essence lies in who changes the direction of capital first."
