North Gyeongsang Province to hold 2026 World Gyeongju Forum vision declaration Wednesday

North Gyeongsang Province announced Tuesday that it will hold the "2026 World Gyeongju Forum Vision Declaration Ceremony" at Lahan Hotel in Gyeongju on Wednesday, formally proclaiming its ambition to develop Gyeongju into a "cultural Davos" — a global hub for discussing the world's cultural agenda.

The ceremony will bring together about 100 figures from the cultural, academic and business sectors, including North Gyeongsang Province Governor Lee Cheol-woo, Gyeongju Mayor Ju Nak-young, North Gyeongsang Provincial Council Speaker Kim Hee-su and Assembly member Kim Seok-ki.

The program will proceed in the following order: an opening ceremony, a video screening on the post-APEC era, a prologue session, a keynote address, a panel discussion and the vision declaration.

The event is being held one day before the opening of the 2026 World Gyeongju Forum, which is hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and co-organized by North Gyeongsang Province, Gyeongju City and the Korea Foundation for International Cultural Exchange.

The World Gyeongju Forum is an international cultural forum that seeks to chart Gyeongju's future in the post-APEC era through culture. The initiative aims to build on the outcomes of the APEC summit through international cultural cooperation and to develop Gyeongju into a global knowledge and policy platform for cultural discourse.

The vision draws a parallel with the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland — just as Davos serves as the gathering point for global economic debate, Gyeongju is envisioned as the city where the world's cultural agenda converges.

The vision declaration will lay out the direction of the "Gyeongju Agenda" that the World Gyeongju Forum intends to build over time. Key pillars include developing the forum into a knowledge and policy platform where global cultural issues accumulate, carrying forward the legacy of the 2025 APEC summit through international cultural cooperation, and establishing a sustainable global operating framework in partnership with governments, international organizations, academic institutions and industry.

Yu Cheol-gyun, president of the Gyeongbuk Research Institute, will present the forum's significance and operational direction, followed by a keynote address by Yu Hong-jun, director of the National Museum of Korea, on the theme "Gyeongju as a Historic Cultural City — Why It Should Become the Davos of Culture."

The panel discussion will be moderated by Jeong Jong-seop, president of the Korea Studies Advancement Center. Participants — including Yu Hong-jun, Yu Cheol-gyun, Kim Jae-su, chief executive of the Gyeongbuk Cultural Foundation, Ham Seong-deuk, vice president of Kyonggi University, and Cheon Gyeong-jin, secretary-general of the Jeju Forum — will exchange views on the theme "The World Gyeongju Forum: A Path to Becoming Korea's Premier Cultural Forum."

North Gyeongsang Province plans to advance the cultural agenda outlined in the vision declaration through international cooperation. The 2026 World Gyeongju Forum, running Thursday through Friday at the Gyeongju HICO convention center, will feature special sessions on the convergence of AI and tradition, the modernization of North Gyeongsang Province's cultural assets, and hallyu and the cultural creative industry.

"Gyeongju is the thousand-year capital of the Silla Kingdom and a city connected to the world through its successful hosting of the APEC summit," Governor Lee said. "North Gyeongsang Province will lead the way in growing the World Gyeongju Forum into Korea's premier cultural forum and ensuring that the cultural agenda forged in Gyeongju spreads across the globe."