Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism Aims to Catch Two Rabbits: Expanding Hallyu and Restoring Culture

Announcement of Work Plan Focused on Strengthening Cultural Power Status, Restoring Everyday Culture, and Enhancing Future Foundations
Minister Hwang Hee: "Concentrating All Efforts to Elevate National Brand and Restore People's Everyday Culture"

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism is preparing next year’s work plan with a focus on spreading the Korean Wave and restoring the cultural daily life of the people. On the 22nd, Minister Hwang Hee announced a work plan centered on solidifying the status of a cultural powerhouse, the swift recovery of cultural daily life, and strengthening the foundation for future culture, sports, and tourism during the joint report on the people’s economy. He emphasized, “The nation’s status has risen further through the power of culture, but the daily lives of workers in the culture, sports, and tourism industries and the public have not yet recovered. We will unite all our capabilities to further enhance the national brand and ensure the cultural daily life of the people, who have suffered due to COVID-19, is restored as soon as possible.”

The announced tasks are broadly divided into ten categories: ▲ Expanding the overseas advancement of K-content ▲ Enhancing the industrial value of the Korean Wave ▲ Broadening the base of the Korean Wave across culture ▲ Recovery of industries such as tourism and sports ▲ Enjoying cultural life again in daily life ▲ Consolation of the people through culture and arts ▲ Achieving results from the K-content digital New Deal ▲ Fostering creative future talents ▲ Establishing a fair culture and sports ecosystem ▲ Creating distinctive regional cultural and tourism conditions.

As a measure to expand the overseas advancement of K-content, strengthening cultural exchange platforms was proposed. A collaborative system will be established centered on overseas cultural centers to promote Korean culture using media arts (6.8 billion KRW), hold Korea Content Week (8 billion KRW), and support cultural experience programs for Korean Wave demand groups (1.7 billion KRW). The New York Korea Center will be opened, and new cultural centers will be established in Sweden and Austria, expanding overseas cultural exchange hubs.

Enhancing the industrial value of the Korean Wave will be induced through support for expanding related exports. Indirect advertising marketing (4.5 billion KRW) mediated by collaboration between drama production and broadcasting companies and enterprises will be supported, and a permanent Korean Wave comprehensive promotional center (4 billion KRW) will be established in Indonesia. Korean Wave expos will be held overseas, and a “K-Brand Exclusive Pavilion” will be operated in online global shopping malls to promote consumption of Korean Wave products. An official said, “We will also develop and commercialize Korean Wave-linked tourism courses domestically, and in March next year, establish the ‘K Style Hub’ in Seoul as a Korean Wave tourism experience base.”

The plan to broaden the base of the Korean Wave across culture includes developing hanbok products in collaboration with K-pop stars, exhibiting hanji (traditional Korean paper) at prestigious overseas museums such as the Louvre and the Vatican, and distributing “Korean Food Culture Boxes” through overseas spaces. To spread the Korean language, the number of designated Sejong Institutes and dispatched specialized teachers will be expanded from 234 locations this year to 270. An official stated, “We will also open a metaverse platform to support anyone in receiving Korean language education.”

The core of the recovery plan for industries such as tourism and sports is the expansion of damage support loans and a one-year grace period for the repayment of principal on loans amounting to 428.6 billion KRW scheduled for repayment next year. For tourism loans, the scale of special loans guaranteed by credit guarantees will be doubled compared to this year (50 billion KRW). Interest rates will also be reduced by up to 1 percentage point. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will support quarantine supplies worth 19.1 billion KRW to about 58,000 private indoor and outdoor sports facilities and amusement facilities. To alleviate employment difficulties, 74.6 billion KRW will be provided for labor costs at sports facilities and movie theaters. An official said, “We will increase the number of intelligent (smart) tourism cities to ten, foster the non-face-to-face sports lesson market (3.9 billion KRW), and support the digital transformation of the sports industry (5 billion KRW).”

Measures to enjoy cultural life again in daily life include holding public participation art events, expanding face-to-face programs, dispatching touring instructors from local sports councils, fostering unpopular and basic sports, supporting vulnerable groups in sports, promoting a “Safe Travel Campaign,” and providing services to disperse tourists. The project “COVID-19, Recorded through Art,” which documents the changed daily life from the perspective of artists, will be made available online, and the media art work “Dadaikseon” by artist Nam June Paik will be restored and exhibited to console the public through culture and arts.

The focus of achieving results from the K-content digital New Deal is on strengthening competitiveness in immersive content, metaverse services, and online video service (OTT) content. Investment in culture, sports, and tourism research and development (R&D) will increase from 113.9 billion KRW this year to 132.3 billion KRW, and the planning, management, and evaluation functions of the Culture, Sports and Tourism Technology Promotion Center, launched last month, will be strengthened. Support will also be provided for creating new markets such as “experiential movies” that combine advanced technology with core intellectual property (IP) like games, movies, and webtoons. Additionally, to revitalize the production and distribution of OTT video content, a self-rating classification system will be introduced, and tax credits for production costs will be pursued. An official said, “We plan to establish funds for broadcasting and OTT video content and dramas to simultaneously support investment, talent development, production support, and overseas advancement.”

Fostering creative future talents focuses on a support system linking education, practice, and employment. Support for young artists’ “first lifetime support” will increase from 1 billion KRW this year to 3 billion KRW, and 16 billion KRW will be invested to create the Art Culture Lab, a creation and production platform. Establishing a fair culture and sports ecosystem will be supported by enacting the “Act on the Fair Distribution Environment of the Cultural Industry,” establishing a rights relief system for artists, investing in sports science, establishing a data-based athlete development system, and expanding regional offices of the Sports Ethics Center.

Measures to create distinctive regional cultural and tourism conditions include revitalizing regional performing arts through collaboration between private performance halls and arts organizations (8.7 billion KRW) and projects to promote regional cultural vitality (750 million KRW). The Lee Kun-hee Donation Hall (tentative name), scheduled to open in 2027, will be developed as a national cultural facility, and special exhibitions and regional touring exhibitions by area will be held. An official said, “We will also prepare steadily for the establishment of the National World Script Center in Songdo, Incheon, in March 2023.” The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will also promote the development of distinctive regional tourism. The 4th Basic Tourism Development Plan will be fully implemented, and a related Southern Regional Tourism Development Plan will be established within next year. Furthermore, the development of tourism hub cities (Busan, Gangneung, Jeonju, Mokpo, Andong) will be intensified to encourage the spread of inbound tourists.

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