Korea Initiative: Towards Digital G2 - The First Step Forward

With the launch of the Lee Jae-myung administration, Korea faces not a task of incremental reform but one of regime shift. The time has come for Korea to become an architect of digital rules. For the past several decades, Korea's economic growth has been defined by export manufacturing, infrastructure, and catch-up innovation. That model, however, is already exhausted, and the frontier ahead is digital. Digital identity, digital currency, and digital platforms lie at its core. The world is already giving shape to these foundations through law and code. The United States has established a regulatory framework by enacting stablecoin-related legislation (the GENIUS Act and the CLARITY Act); the European Union has implemented MiCA; and China is accelerating the rollout of the e-CNY. Not only nations but also global financial institutions are building their own digital infrastructure, moving global liquidity through worldwide distribution networks. The rules of the digital order are already being written, and Korea must decide whether it will be subordinate to rules set by others or become an architect of that order itself. The Korea Initiative has declared a shift from rule-taking to rule-making. Its strategic horizon is the Digital G2. The Digital G2 extends the concept of the "Group of Two" into the digital age, embodying a vision in which Korea secures the leadership to design global digital norms and infrastructure. This means establishing the norms that govern how value is expressed and transferred, how identity is defined, and how markets connect across borders and innovate. In other words, the essence of the Lee Jae-myung administration's pledges lies not in a laundry list of sector-by-sector projects, but in marshaling national capacity, capital markets, and industrial execution under the single national mission of "rule-making." This forum, "Korea Initiative: The First Step Toward Digital G2," was convened to translate this national mission into an actionable agenda and to present a roadmap for the path ahead. This forum is not a venue for abstract discourse but a platform for substantive cooperation that gives concrete shape to execution pathways centered on digital identity, digital currency, and digital platforms. The summary that follows synthesizes the discussions and recommendations of the National Assembly, regulators, industry, and international partners to present the strategy, points of balance, and roadmap that Korea must choose and prepare for. Through this, we aim to lay the foundation for moving from vision to execution, and from national aspiration to global leadership.