Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism Certifies Record 252 Workplaces as 'Excellent in Reading Management'

Target: Gyeonggi Housing and Urban Development Corporation

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, together with the Korea Publication Culture Industry Promotion Agency, announced on the 7th a total of 252 "2024 Excellent Workplaces for Reading Management" that lead the promotion of reading culture through reading-friendly management.

Now in its 11th year, the "Excellent Workplace for Reading Management Certification" program annually identifies companies and institutions that practice reading-friendly management, awards them with a certification under the name of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and recognizes outstanding organizations among them.

Starting with 20 certified workplaces in its inaugural year of 2014, the number of certified companies has increased every year, reaching a record high of 252 this year (103 new certifications and 149 re-certifications). Certified companies receive follow-up support such as customized reading management consulting and book support.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism selects six top organizations with excellent evaluation scores among the certified institutions each year (one grand prize winner and five excellence awardees) and presents them with the Minister’s Award.

This year, the grand prize was awarded to Gyeonggi Housing and Urban Development Corporation, which has been intensively promoting talent development, self-directed learning culture, internalization of core values, and community sharing based on reading through systems such as self-development expense support, book learning platforms, and in-house libraries.

The excellence awards went to △Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance △Seoul Yongsan-gu Facilities Management Corporation △Paradise △Fursys Holdings △HD Hyundai Heavy Industries △Saemaeul Geumgo.

The awards ceremony will be held at 2 p.m. today at the International Conference Hall of the National Library of Korea in Seocho-gu, Seoul. The grand prize and excellence award recipients will receive a plaque of certification and book culture gift certificates as prizes along with their awards, while the outstanding award recipients will receive a plaque of certification as a prize along with their awards.

Kim Yong-seop, Director of the Media Policy Bureau at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said, "The steady increase in the number of excellent workplaces for reading management indicates that organizations recognize that reading contributes not only to employees’ personal development but also to strengthening organizational capabilities and enhancing communication across management." He added, "With the current trend of valuing reading itself and the Nobel Prize in Literature awarded to author Han Kang, we hope that the 'Excellent Workplace for Reading Management Certification' will be a significant support for the reading culture that is thriving in our society."

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