Ministry of Culture Budget for Next Year 6.8637 Trillion Won... "Support for COVID-19 Industry Damage"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heung-soon] The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's budget for next year has been finalized at 6.8637 trillion KRW. The 2021 Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism budget bill, passed by the National Assembly plenary session on the 2nd, represents a 5.9% increase from this year's main budget of 6.4803 trillion KRW.

The Ministry explained that the next year's budget actively expanded non-face-to-face and online projects to ensure safe cultural activities for citizens exhausted by the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), and also significantly reflected budgets to support the early recovery of industries affected by COVID-19 such as culture, arts, content, tourism, and sports.

Major non-face-to-face projects include support for online media art activities (4.9 billion KRW), establishment of smart museums and art galleries (6.7 billion KRW, new), support for online culture and arts education (2.0 billion KRW, new), support for online immersive K-pop performance production (26.5 billion KRW, new), support for broadcasting video content production (39.3 billion KRW), production of immersive content for Tourism Korea (1.2 billion KRW, new), and fostering the non-face-to-face sports market (3.9 billion KRW, new).

Support projects for industries affected by COVID-19 include establishing a creative safety net for artists (58.6 billion KRW), living stabilization funds for artists (24.0 billion KRW), investment in the Proud Contents Korea Fund (114.8 billion KRW), investment and support for film production (35.0 billion KRW), support for independent art film production (8.0 billion KRW), tourism industry loan support (599.0 billion KRW), support for tourism business startups and venture growth (74.5 billion KRW), and financial support for the sports industry (119.2 billion KRW).

By sector, the culture and arts sector has been allocated 2.2165 trillion KRW, a 4.5% increase from this year's budget, including the establishment and expansion of the Korean language promotion foundation (89.2 billion KRW) and promotion of the industrialization of the arts (14.6 billion KRW).

The content sector has surpassed 1 trillion KRW with a budget of 1.0259 trillion KRW, a 6.3% increase compared to this year. The sports sector has been allocated 1.7594 trillion KRW, a 3.7% increase from this year, and the tourism sector has been allocated 1.4998 trillion KRW, an 11.2% increase from this year.

Additionally, the Ministry's budget for the 'Korean New Deal,' a leading strategy after COVID-19, has been finalized at 296.7 billion KRW across 51 detailed projects. Major projects include 253.6 billion KRW for the Digital New Deal sector fostering immersive and convergence content using advanced technology, 35.6 billion KRW for the Green New Deal sector aimed at eco-friendly restructuring of cultural infrastructure, and 7.5 billion KRW for safety net enhancement such as producing alternative materials for books for the disabled.

The Ministry stated, "We plan to support the early recovery of economic vitality through efficient budget execution by allocating more than 70% of next year's expenditure budget in the first half of the year."