South Korea to overhaul national asset management, covering securities and virtual assets

The government plans to overhaul the existing State Property Act and enact a new National Asset Basic Act, shifting the national asset management framework from one focused on owning and preserving real estate to a system centered on active management and value creation — covering a broad range of assets including intellectual property, securities and equity stakes, and virtual assets.

The plan calls for establishing a National Asset Management Committee, strengthening the Ministry of Economy and Finance's oversight and coordination role and expanding the mandate of the Korea Asset Management Corp. (Kamco). The government will also build an AI-powered national asset database linking assets held by the central government, local governments and public institutions.

Deputy Prime Minister Koo Yun-cheol unveiled the plan Thursday at the Government Complex Seoul during a joint meeting of the Emergency Economic Headquarters and the ministerial conference on economic and structural reform. The initiative, formally titled the "National Asset Management System Transformation (K-Asset Innovation Project)," outlines the government's direction for the overhaul.

The government said the sweeping reform is needed because the scale and variety of state-owned assets have grown significantly while the current legal framework remains anchored in a real estate-centric model. State-owned property reached 1,402.7 trillion won ($982 billion) at the end of last year, and new asset classes such as intellectual property and virtual assets have emerged.

The government intends to enact the National Asset Basic Act as a full revision of the State Property Act, which dates to 1950, redefining "state property" under the broader concept of "national assets" oriented toward active management and value creation.

The new framework will cover not only real estate but also financial assets, intellectual property and virtual assets under a unified management system. The Ministry of Economy and Finance's oversight and coordination functions and Kamco's scope of delegated management will both be expanded. Assets held by local governments and public institutions will be linked to enable joint use.

The National Asset Basic Act will include separate chapters for each of four core asset categories — real estate, intellectual property, securities and equity stakes, and virtual assets — establishing tailored management systems covering the full lifecycle from acquisition through management to disposal.

For real estate, the government will expand efforts to identify idle assets and promote joint use among central government agencies, local governments and public institutions, while standardizing development criteria to clarify what can be developed and how. For intellectual property, it will establish a use-first principle and develop valuation methods. Securities and equity stakes will be brought under an integrated lifecycle management system, and virtual assets will be explicitly designated as national assets in law, providing a legal basis for their management and disposal.

The governance structure will also be reformed. The existing State Property Policy Deliberation Committee will be restructured and expanded into the new National Asset Management Committee, which will deliberate on and decide the national asset master plan, the basic direction for asset management and the appropriateness of special-case exemptions. Each ministry will designate a national asset officer to strengthen accountability. The government also plans to tighten the principles governing special-case asset management and build a feedback mechanism that regularly evaluates asset management performance and incorporates findings into policy.

A data-driven management system will be built in stages. The first step will link asset information from the central government, local governments and public institutions to the digital budget and accounting system dBrain and introduce AI-powered administrative support functions. From 2027, the government plans to build a dedicated AI-based national asset database — tentatively named "K-Asset Cloud" — to help identify key assets and optimize their use.

Alongside this, the government will build a management system that efficiently matches supply and demand for national assets, linked to a newly established medium-term development plan. Under a regular management process, assets will be classified each year by development, use or preservation status; five-year utilization demand from ministries, local governments and public institutions will be surveyed; candidate sites will be matched; and project plans will be finalized. Urgent policy needs will be handled through a separate ad hoc procedure.

The government plans to complete a draft of the National Asset Basic Act by the end of this year through a public-private joint task force and a research project commissioned to the Korea Development Institute. However, the plan as announced sets out the basic direction and design principles for the institutional transition; specific details on the oversight authority's powers, asset-category management systems and special-case exemptions will be worked out through consultations among related ministries and the legislative process.