Culture Ministry Tops Youth Policy Evaluation... Expands Support for Culture and Arts Foundation

Office for Government Policy Coordination Evaluates 47 Central Government Agencies

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced on April 29 that it achieved the top ranking among ministerial-level agencies in the "2025 Youth Policy Implementation Performance Evaluation" organized by the Office for Government Policy Coordination.

This evaluation comprehensively reviewed the performance of youth policies and the contribution to improving young people’s lives across 47 central government agencies. The ministry explained that it received high marks for implementing projects that provide tangible support for young people’s daily lives and careers, and for increasing the sense of policy impact through communication with youth.

The ministry expanded young people’s opportunities to enjoy culture by subsidizing admission fees. Through the "Youth Culture and Arts Pass," it provided performance and exhibition admission support to approximately 160,000 19-year-olds, and included fitness facilities such as gyms and swimming pools as eligible for cultural expense income tax deductions to ease the financial burden of culture and leisure for young people.

It also broadened the foundation for young artists to challenge themselves and work in the culture and arts sector. By expanding the number of youth trainees in national arts organizations, 542 young people received professional training and hands-on experience. Four new National Youth Arts Troupes were established in the fields of traditional performing arts, Korean dance, theater, and orchestra. In addition, an arts activity savings account was introduced for young artists, supporting around 3,000 youths to continue their creative work and build a foundation for self-reliance.

The ministry also focused on nurturing young cultural talent to lead K-culture. Through the Content Creative Talent Partnership Program, it discovered and fostered 326 young creative talents, supporting their entry into the industry through expert mentoring and commercialization of outstanding projects. In fields such as animation, webtoon, games, broadcast video content, and advertising, the ministry operated practical training programs to enhance job skills.

Communication with young people was also continuously strengthened. By collecting a wide range of opinions through the official website "Garden of Youth Voices" and the Youth Culture Forum, and by hosting "Youth Policy Communication Meetings" involving both the 2030 Advisory Group and project managers, the ministry made policy proposals more concrete. It also increased the sense of policy impact by improving project operations based on participant feedback.

This year, the ministry plans to further strengthen the policy infrastructure that young people can truly feel by implementing a total of 41 youth policy tasks amounting to approximately 238 billion won.

The ministry will newly launch the "K-Art Young Creator Support" project to ensure the stability of young creators’ artistic activities, providing an annual creative grant of 9 million won to 3,000 young pure art creators. The arts activity savings account for young artists will be expanded to a total of 6,000 participants, including both existing and new members.

Opportunities for young people to gain international experience and on-site practical skills will also be broadened. The newly launched "Youth K-Culture Global Frontier" program will support around 700 young people in planning and operating K-culture projects or gaining experience at cultural institutions abroad. In addition, through the first supplementary budget of 2026, the ministry plans to support a total of 725 young people in field employment and practical experience by providing positions such as trainees at cultural and arts institutions, literary museum interns, tourism workforce training, and content industry internships.

The ministry will also expand opportunities for young people to enjoy culture in their daily lives. The Youth Culture and Arts Pass will expand eligibility from only 19-year-olds to those aged 19 and 20, and will add movies and books (in the second half of the year) as eligible categories. Regional support amounts will be increased to 150,000 won for the metropolitan area and 200,000 won for non-metropolitan areas. The "Youth Microphone" program, which offers young cultural artists opportunities to perform on Culture Day, will be expanded, and around 300 performances will be held in culturally underserved regions to further increase access to cultural experiences.

Minister Choi Hwi-young stated, "Achieving first place in this evaluation is the result of collaborating with the field to ensure that cultural policy is a real force in young people’s lives, and connecting those efforts to policy. Young people are the foundation and future of K-culture. In 2026, we will continue to make young people’s voices the starting point for policy, so that they can enjoy culture more widely in their daily lives and fully realize their potential on the cultural scene and global stage, by swiftly implementing effective policies."

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