Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to Raise 298.5 Billion KRW for Content, Tourism, and Sports Investments This Year

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heung-soon] The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced on the 14th that it plans to newly raise a total of 298.5 billion KRW in investment funds for this year’s Mother Fund accounts for culture, tourism, and sports.

In 2021, the Ministry invested 144 billion KRW in the Mother Fund’s culture account (cultural industry investment funds), raising a total of 215 billion KRW in investment funds. These will be organized and operated across four sectors: ▲ venture content funds ▲ broadcasting and online video service (OTT) video content funds ▲ content company recovery support funds ▲ content value evaluation-linked funds.

The venture content funds will be expanded from 87.3 billion KRW last year to 150 billion KRW, introducing a matching investment method where mid-sized companies and others participate as senior companies supporting junior companies in raising investment funds.

A new recovery support fund (25 billion KRW) has been established to invest in content production by companies affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, such as those undergoing re-startups or experiencing revenue declines.

To secure the competitiveness of domestic OTT content amid the rapid growth of the non-face-to-face industry, 30 billion KRW will be allocated to broadcasting and OTT video content funds, and 10 billion KRW to content value evaluation-linked funds.

Regarding the operation of cultural industry investment funds, reinvestment will be temporarily allowed until next year. For venture content funds and content company recovery support funds, a first-loss guarantee (within 10% of the committed amount) will be applied to encourage active private investment.

For the Mother Fund tourism account, 15 billion KRW will be additionally invested, raising the total to 45 billion KRW to create 65 billion KRW in tourism company development funds. The government’s investment ratio in tourism funds will be 70%, with at least 65% invested in the tourism sector. In particular, the investment targets and mandatory ratios for 'tourism business startup support and venture development project selected companies' will be expanded.

The Mother Fund sports account will be raised to 18.5 billion KRW. To promote investment activation, additional performance bonuses will be provided if the main mandatory investment ratio of 60% or more is achieved early within two years.

Proposals for fund operation this year will be accepted by Korea Venture Investment from the 9th to the 16th of next month. More detailed information, including the investment announcement, can be found on the Korea Venture Investment Corporation website.

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