Government Simultaneously Promotes Daily Recovery and Hallyu Expansion Through Content (Comprehensive)

Prime Minister Kim Bu-gyeom: "Non-face-to-face consumption and home-stay culture are opportunities to target the global market"
Content Industry Promotion Committee announces COVID-19 overcoming content industry innovation strategy
Focus on daily recovery through culture and activation of Hallyu outbound
Restoration of Nam June Paik's representative work 'Dadaikseon': "An opportunity to spread the meaning of recovery"

Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum (second from left) is visiting the Digital Immersive Video Hall at the National Museum of Korea in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, on the 3rd, viewing immersive content. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

The government is launching various cultural projects aimed at healing from COVID-19 and restoring daily life. On the 3rd, Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum chaired the 7th Content Industry Promotion Committee at the National Museum of Korea, where he reviewed and approved the "COVID-19 Overcoming Content Industry Innovation Strategy," which includes measures for responding to COVID-19 and expanding the Korean Wave (Hallyu).

Prime Minister Kim stated, "The non-face-to-face consumption and 'stay-at-home culture' triggered by COVID-19 have paradoxically become opportunities to target the global market," adding, "We will spare no support to expand Hallyu, which has so far focused on video and music, to publishing and traditional culture as well." He cited the Netflix original series "Squid Game," which recently gained worldwide popularity, as a representative Hallyu content. He said, "It broke down all barriers of generation, language, and country," and "It revived forgotten memories such as dalgona, squid game, and marbles, making them enjoyable for all generations worldwide." He further promised, "The power and potential of content are difficult to measure in limits. We will innovate the content industry ecosystem by expanding financial support for producing quality content and fostering the necessary talent." Regarding the public's mental fatigue due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, he said, "We will promote healing through various cultural projects."

Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum is delivering a keynote speech at the 7th Content Industry Promotion Committee held at the National Museum of Korea in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, on the 3rd. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

The promotion strategy consists of four pillars: ▲ Restoring daily life through culture ▲ Strengthening digital capabilities of the content industry ▲ Innovating the content industry ecosystem ▲ Activating Hallyu outbound. These address various challenges to accelerate the restoration of daily life and solidify the foundation of Hallyu. Through this, the government plans to revive social vitality, which has been stagnant due to COVID-19, and increase content sales to 168.1 trillion won (126 trillion won as of last year), exports to 15.69 billion USD (10.83 billion USD), and overseas Hallyu fans to 150 million (about 100 million) by 2025.

Restoring daily life through culture focuses on recording and sharing. Cultural enjoyment opportunities will be provided to the public through programs such as "Visiting Public Art," "Art Prescription," and humanities healing programs. Next month, the immersive content experience space "Gwanghwashidae" will be established, and a Culture and Arts Week will be held in the first half of next year to convey messages of recovery and hope. A Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism official explained, "We plan to heal scars by recording the changed daily life due to COVID-19 through art and spread hope by holding cultural events that announce the restoration of daily life." 4.7 billion won will be invested in recording and data collection/management. National art groups and young artists will participate extensively in performance and exhibition programs. The Ministry will also restore Nam June Paik's representative work "Dadaikseon" in the first half of next year. The official said, "It is the largest domestic media art that sublimated participation and communication into art," and "We will promote it as a global media project to spread the meaning of recovery."

Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum (third from the left) is inspecting the digital immersive video hall set up inside the exhibition hall ahead of the 7th Content Industry Promotion Committee held on the 3rd at the National Museum of Korea in Yongsan-gu, Seoul. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

The plan to strengthen the digital capabilities of the content industry includes four measures: fostering extended virtual worlds (metaverse) and immersive content, supporting art and technology convergence creation and production, expanding research and development (R&D) investment in culture, sports, and tourism, and launching the Culture, Sports and Tourism Technology Promotion Center. The government will invest 16.1 billion won next year in supporting virtual content production, 1.9 billion won in building the "K-Meta World," a virtual experience space for Hallyu content, and 1.9 billion won in implementing and providing experience services for Korean tourism virtual spaces. It will also promote immersive film production and commercialization (6 billion won), creation of online K-pop concert halls and online performance production (10 billion won), art and technology convergence creation and production projects (4.8 billion won), development of immersive content integrating content and tourism (3.6 billion won), and establishment of overseas immersive content experience centers (2 billion won). Research on digital transformation of detailed industries will expand from tourism to the cultural sector. A Ministry official said, "Demand for non-face-to-face online culture and leisure has surged," adding, "We will realize cultural enjoyment without geographical or physical constraints through the convergence of content and digital technology and nurture it as a growth engine in the Fourth Industrial Revolution era." The Culture, Sports and Tourism Technology Promotion Center, launching this month, will be a specialized institution to promote this. It will consolidate dispersed R&D capabilities in cultural technology by sector and lay the foundation for activating convergence research in content, copyright, sports, and tourism.

Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum (second from the left) is visiting the Digital Immersive Video Hall at the National Museum of Korea in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, on the 3rd, viewing immersive content. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

The innovation plan for the content industry ecosystem is broadly divided into strengthening basic capabilities and regional balanced development, and fostering win-win cooperation and creating a fair environment. The former will be addressed through nurturing region-based cultural content companies, utilizing 256 cultural centers nationwide, establishing content theme parks, IP convergence content clusters (22 billion won), and Art Culture Labs (16 billion won), building 130 intelligent museums and art galleries, and integrating advanced cultural technology into idle cultural spaces in regions (11.1 billion won). The scale of venture investment funds to supply investment capital for content creation and production will be expanded to 220 billion won, and a 25 billion won COVID-19 recovery support fund will be prepared to alleviate management difficulties of small and medium content production companies. Additionally, 1,130 talents will be trained through industry-academia-research cooperation, and educational courses by genre will be expanded. The core of the latter is OTT content support. A drama fund of 50 billion won will be established to carry out global projects, and 11.6 billion won will be provided for OTT specialized content production. An OTT content specialized graduate school will also be established. Next year, 70 field-customized talents will be nurtured. Fair contract guidelines between OTT platforms and content producers will be prepared, and international broadcasting and video markets and the Seoul Drama Awards will be held to encourage overseas expansion. Meanwhile, the government will promote the enactment of the "Act on the Creation of a Fair Distribution Environment for Cultural Industries" and appropriately revise standard contracts to accelerate the creation of a fair environment.

Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum (third from the left) is attending the 7th Content Industry Promotion Committee held at the National Museum of Korea in Yongsan-gu, Seoul on the 3rd. The committee discussed strategies for innovation in the content industry to overcome COVID-19 on this day. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

The key topic for activating Hallyu outbound is the establishment of a K-content outbound platform. Regional meetings of related organizations will be formed centered on major overseas Korean cultural centers, and regional networks will be solidified to strengthen the function of cultural exchange platforms. A Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism official said, "We plan to increase overseas outbound bases to respond to the rapidly growing Hallyu demand," explaining, "Next year, the New York Korea Center and the Swedish Cultural Center will be newly established, and the Korea Creative Content Agency Business Center will also be expanded. The Sejong Institutes will be increased to 270 locations by next year." The government will also expand Hallyu touchpoints. The K-Style Hub will reopen in February next year, and convergence content experience facilities will be installed at overseas cultural centers. World K-pop concerts, East Asia E-sports competitions, and Korea Content Week will be fostered as representative Hallyu events. Furthermore, the Hallyu Cooperation Committee will discover and support collaborative projects, and various online exchange channels will be opened to diversify Hallyu into publishing, traditional culture, and more.