"Continuing the Global Hallyu Wave with the 'New Hallyu'"

Government Announces New Hallyu Promotion Policy Plan
Comprehensive Strategy for Sustainable Expansion of Hallyu
Proposes 3 Major Support Strategies and 9 Key Policy Tasks

Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun is touring the New Hallyu Expansion Model media exhibition with Park Yang-woo, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, at the Government Seoul Office in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on the morning of the 16th. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heung-soon] The government has declared a transition to the "New Hallyu" to ensure the continuous spread of the Korean Wave.

On the 16th, at the 110th National Policy Issue Inspection and Coordination Meeting chaired by the Prime Minister, the government discussed and announced the "New Hallyu Promotion Policy Implementation Plan," jointly established by related ministries.

◆ Three Major Support Strategies and Nine Policy Tasks for New Hallyu = The government analyzed the temporal characteristics of the Korean Wave over the past 20 years, dividing it into four stages, and defined the Korean Wave aimed for after 2020, the fourth stage, as "New Hallyu." Unlike the existing Korean Wave, New Hallyu refers to discovering Hallyu content throughout Korean culture, strengthening links with related industries, and aiming for mutual cultural exchange, thereby creating a Korean Wave with high sustainability and ripple effects.

Three support strategies were also introduced to promote this. The first is "Diversification of Hallyu content." In addition to supporting existing popular culture content, it aims to discover new Hallyu content from Korea's rich cultural assets.

The second is "Driving related industries through Hallyu." It strengthens connections not only in consumer goods but also in service industries through Hallyu. Simply sharing policies and information currently pursued sporadically by related ministries and enhancing necessary collaboration can reduce duplication and inefficiency.

The third is "Establishing a foundation for sustainable Hallyu expansion." Until now, the government has only provided indirect support for Hallyu and did not have an official policy coordination body. However, for the continuous growth and spread of Hallyu in the future, it was judged necessary to establish a policy coordination body and government cooperation system and provide more active support. Therefore, the government plans to set up the Hallyu Cooperation Committee and Working Committee to oversee support policies.

◆ Enhancing Impact through Diversification of Hallyu Content = The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism plans to nurture Korean eSports as a global Hallyu content by hosting the first Korea-China-Japan eSports competition in November and establishing a permanent eSports stadium. Support for immersive content production and expansion of experiential infrastructure will also be enhanced to develop new Hallyu content based on 5G mobile communication. Overseas projects will support expanding the base of Hallyu to include traditional culture and lifestyle culture such as Korean cuisine, Taekwondo, and cultural heritage, beyond existing popular culture content.

◆ Driving Co-growth of Related Industries through Hallyu = Utilizing the economic ripple effect of Hallyu, the government aims to enhance the competitiveness of consumer goods and service industries and induce co-growth of related industries. Hallyu will be actively used in marketing consumer goods industries such as cosmetics (K-Beauty), agriculture and food (K-Food), seafood (K-Fish), and fashion (K-Fashion), and competitiveness in service industries such as tourism, medical care, and education will be enhanced by linking them with Hallyu. Public-private cooperative Hallyu marketing and cooperative projects to support excellent small and medium-sized enterprise brands "Brand K" will also be strengthened.

Next year, the government plans to establish K-Beauty experience and promotion centers in domestic key commercial areas such as Myeongdong and Gangnam. It will promote Korean agricultural and food products and seafood in connection with Hallyu stars and provide strategic sales support centered on large supermarkets, cinemas, dedicated sales halls, and pop-up booths in Hallyu expansion regions such as the New Southern Policy and Greater China regions.

To revitalize Hallyu tourism, the government will hold the large-scale Korean Culture Festival (K-Culture Festival) both online and offline domestically. To attractively promote Korea’s representative cultural heritage as a tourism resource, cultural heritage visit courses will be provided, and promotional content in collaboration with Hallyu stars will also be produced.

For Hallyu marketing, the government will hold Hallyu expos twice a year through inter-ministerial cooperation and support the development of consumer goods Hallyu products in collaboration with Hallyu stars. To promote small and medium-sized enterprise products, 300 excellent products will be selected as Brand K by 2022, and overseas marketing linked to various Hallyu events will be intensively supported.

Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun is touring the New Hallyu Expansion Model media exhibition with Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Park Yang-woo at the Government Seoul Office in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on the morning of the 16th. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

◆ Establishing a Foundation for Sustainable Hallyu Expansion = The public-private cooperative Hallyu Cooperation Committee, launched in February this year, will be legalized and continuously operated as a core government collaboration body. To systematically analyze overseas Hallyu demand online, Hallyu big data will be collected and utilized.

Also, using the Korea.net "Hallyu YouTube Channel" established in May, opportunities for foreigners to produce and participate in video content related to Hallyu and Korean culture will be expanded. To protect overseas copyrights of Hallyu content, effective measures will be prepared centered on the Overseas Intellectual Property Protection Council, which includes related ministries.

◆ Overcoming Crisis with New Hallyu = To support related industries restricted from entering overseas markets due to COVID-19, the government plans to focus on nurturing Hallyu content suitable for non-face-to-face mobile media such as games, eSports, webtoons, and one-person broadcasting/video content. Support will be provided for webtoon production integrating new technologies such as facial recognition and virtual reality (VR), and efforts will be concentrated on producing new types of video content suitable for online video service (OTT) platforms.

Development of convergence and fusion services in cultural technology and music fields will also be supported. Next year, the government plans to establish a specialized studio for immersive performance production so that K-pop fans worldwide can enjoy K-pop in various non-face-to-face ways.

To leap forward as a safe medical and healing tourism hub, the government will nurture medical tourism attraction companies, provide sector-specific education, and start developing convergence healing tourism products through contests for domestic travel agencies.

Park Yang-woo, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, evaluated, "Hallyu is an event worthy of being recorded in world cultural history and has given us confidence that we can be world leaders in the cultural sector." He added, "Hallyu is now at a crossroads, and wise government policies are needed. We hope that the history of New Hallyu, leading world culture, will begin with well-supported cultural and artistic potential and creativity of our people fully demonstrated on the global stage."