Assemblyman Lee Byung-hoon Proposes Partial Amendment to the Framework Act on Cultural Industry Promotion

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] Congressman Lee Byung-hoon (Democratic Party of Korea·Gwangju Dong-gu Nam-gu Eul) announced on the 19th that he has proposed the “Partial Amendment to the Framework Act on Cultural Industry Promotion” to secure funds for revitalizing investment and financing in the content industry.

The amendment mainly aims to provide a legal basis for the Korea Creative Content Agency to receive government funds, re-contribute them to guarantee institutions to expand guaranteed loans, and establish a project to support financing for small and micro content companies without collateral power.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has been promoting the Proud Content Korea Fund investment project since 2006 to revitalize investment in the content industry. As of last year, a total of 672.1 billion KRW was invested in the cultural account of the Korea Fund of Funds, creating 97 investment associations and raising 2.1198 trillion KRW.

Although the Korea Fund of Funds has played a significant role in revitalizing investment in the content industry over the past decade, resulting in remarkable development of the content industry, there have been continuous criticisms that the investment support system reflecting the characteristics of content is still severely lacking.

Despite the content industry having both industrial and cultural value and great growth potential, it faces difficulties in attracting investment and financing due to its low proportion of tangible assets and the fact that most companies are small-scale.

Moreover, even when investments are made, most are concentrated only on completed content, leaving a gap in investment for early and mid-stage production projects. The genres are also focused on movies, performances, and games, inevitably causing neglect of other genres.

Congressman Lee said, “For the content industry to develop further, corporate growth financing is needed so that small businesses can grow into medium-sized enterprises, and medium-sized enterprises into large corporations. However, guarantees and loans from policy financial institutions such as the Korea Technology Finance Corporation, Korea Credit Guarantee Fund, and Small and Medium Business Corporation mainly apply financial structure and technological evaluation criteria, which inadequately reflect the characteristics of the content industry.”

He added, “While the public praises BTS and the movie Parasite with admiration, policy financing supporting content companies is severely insufficient. Expansion of policy financial support for content companies and establishment of standards suitable for the content industry are necessary to provide effective support.”

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