[2021 Budget] 29 Billion Won for Online K-Pop Venues... 1.8 Million Won for Returning Farmers

Government Announces Next Year's Budget Special Projects
Idle Facilities Reborn as Local Tourist Attractions
Complex Innovation Center and Living SOC Established in Innovation City

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[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] The government will establish an online K-Pop performance venue worth 29 billion KRW next year to respond to the post-COVID-19 era. It will also carry out projects such as remodeling closed schools and tunnels into tourist attractions and providing up to 1.8 million KRW to those wishing to return to farming or rural areas.

On the 1st, the government announced 60 special projects included in the 556 trillion KRW budget plan for next year.

First, 29 billion KRW will be invested to create an online K-Pop performance venue for vivid online viewing of K-Pop performances. Of this, 20 billion KRW is allocated for building studios capable of producing online K-Pop performances, and 9 billion KRW for supporting performance production.

As an example of online K-Pop performances, BTS held an online concert called 'BangBangCon' last June, attracting 757,000 viewers from 107 countries and generating sales of over 25 billion KRW.

Additionally, 450 million KRW will be used to develop digital content that allows domestic audiences to appreciate overseas cultural heritage, and 950 million KRW to produce immersive content for palace night programs to be provided online. This aims to provide cultural services to groups who find it difficult to visit in person due to spatial and temporal constraints.

A new budget of 8.9 billion KRW has been allocated for projects remodeling abandoned tunnels, closed schools, and closed inns into regional representative tourist attractions. These projects will reuse idle facilities to create lodging linked with local unique stories and tourism resources, and transform abandoned tunnels into public history education and experience spaces.

Next year, the 'Living in Rural Areas for 6 Months Program' will be expanded to 4.08 billion KRW. This program supports young and middle-aged people wishing to return to farming or rural living by providing temporary housing and training expenses (300,000 KRW per month) so they can live in their desired rural area for six months before actual relocation and experience farming work.

For 400 households wishing to return to farming or rural areas, 300,000 KRW per month will be paid for up to six months if they meet the work condition of at least 15 days per month. Temporary housing facilities will be established in 240 locations across 80 cities and counties nationwide.

To improve living conditions in innovation cities, projects will be promoted to build complex innovation centers (28.7 billion KRW) and child- and family-specialized living SOC facilities (45 billion KRW). The government expects these to contribute to increasing family relocation rates and revitalizing local communities.

Current Status of Innovation Cities

The complex innovation centers, which combine cultural, sports, welfare facilities, and startup company spaces, will be installed one each in 10 innovation cities, totaling 10 centers. Additionally, 10 living SOC facilities such as children's job experience centers and digital experience centers will be established.

To promote sustainable fishing villages and fisheries development, the 'Fisheries Public Interest Direct Payment System' will be expanded. This system pays direct subsidies to fisheries that fulfill public interest obligations such as resource protection and eco-friendliness.

Specifically, 25.6 billion KRW will be invested in the eco-friendly seafood direct payment system supporting increased costs from eco-certification and use of compound feed; 4 billion KRW in the management transfer direct payment system supporting retired fishermen transferring management to young fishermen; and 8 billion KRW in the fisheries resource protection direct payment system supporting fishermen who comply with resource protection obligations such as total allowable catch systems.

A government official stated, "This is expected to establish a stable income base for fishermen and encourage youth inflow into fishing villages."

Thirteen national local museums, including those in Gyeongju, Cheongju, and Buyeo, will be branded based on regional characteristics and historical significance to develop them into representative Korean cultural museums rich in attractions.

By detailed project, 6.5 billion KRW will be allocated for branded special exhibitions, 3.9 billion KRW for branded academic research, 3.9 billion KRW for smart museums building digital archives through 3D scanning, and 3.3 billion KRW for cooperation with regional cultural institutions through joint exhibitions and cultural events.

To reexamine the lives and roles of women in history and promote gender equality awareness, the 'National Women’s Museum' will be constructed. The National Women’s Museum will be built on a 7,000㎡ site within the Women’s Policy Research Institute in Bulgwang-dong, Seoul, with a total project cost of 26.8 billion KRW. Next year, 300 million KRW will be reflected in the budget for basic survey and design costs for the museum construction.

Ten additional women- and child-only investigation rooms will be added to prosecution offices and 35 to police stations respectively to prevent secondary damage during investigations of sexual violence and child abuse victims and to create a human rights-friendly testimony environment.

Support will be provided to supply standardized foreign language menus to Korean restaurants domestically and abroad. A total of 300 million KRW will be invested to distribute foreign language menus with consistent and unified Korean food names to 3,000 Korean restaurants each domestically and overseas.

A new project to digitally record the skills of 'Korea’s Food Masters' (900 million KRW) will also be launched. Next year, the skills and histories of 30 masters of traditional foods such as traditional liquor, kimchi, and hangwa will be digitally recorded and produced as videos or books to preserve and use as materials for future generations.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.