Announcement of the 2023-2027 Basic Plan for Culture Technology Research and Development
A visitor is experiencing a booth at the 'K-Metaverse Festival & Expo 2022' held at COEX in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. [Image source=Yonhap News]
[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heeyoon] To implement a metaverse virtual performance system where 100,000 audience members can participate and communicate, the government is set to actively develop leading cultural content technologies and nurture convergence talents amid rapid changes.
On the 21st, according to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, to effectively promote research and development (R&D) for the advancement of the cultural industry, the ministry announced the "4th Basic Plan for Cultural Technology R&D (2023?2027)" on the same day.
The current level of Korea's core content technologies shows an average technology gap of about two years compared to advanced countries. The level of key technologies such as virtual reality mixed technology and intelligent content production technology is about 80% of the top advanced countries.
The budget for cultural technology R&D accounts for only 0.45% of the national total R&D budget (132.3 billion KRW out of 29.8 trillion KRW in 2022), highlighting the ongoing need for increased investment.
Accordingly, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism plans to actively promote the cultivation of content industries and companies based on new technologies for the global leap of cultural technology (K-CT).
The basic plan is the highest-level plan encompassing R&D tasks across all areas of the ministry, including content, culture and arts, copyright, sports, and tourism, based on Article 4 of the "Basic Act on the Promotion of Cultural Industries."
With the expiration of the 3rd basic plan in 2022, the ministry gathered opinions from experts in industry, academia, and research, analyzed changes in the industrial environment and technology trends, and prepared the 4th basic plan.
According to the plan, the government will actively develop leading technologies related to expanding the extended virtual world (metaverse) as a cultural service space. It aims to realize ultra-realistic and new technology-converged virtual performance technology where a large-scale audience of 100,000 can participate and communicate, and secure various digital content data (such as cultural spaces and characters).
Using advanced display technologies, the government will also develop technologies to create convergence on-offline linked performance venues. Additionally, digital platform-based creation and production technologies and copyright protection technologies will be developed to ensure smooth content processes (creation, production, distribution, consumption) online.
Furthermore, the ministry will promote the nurturing of convergence talents equipped with new technology capabilities. It plans to strengthen education systems that integrate cultural technology into each cultural content field and establish a convergence academy equipped with advanced technology capabilities.
To this end, the ministry aims to increase the cultural technology R&D budget to about 1% of the government’s total R&D budget, while also easing the burden on small and medium enterprises by expanding recognition criteria for company-affiliated creative research institutes, thereby fostering a virtuous cycle in the R&D ecosystem.
A ministry official stated, "As the speed of advancement in cutting-edge technologies such as extended virtual worlds (metaverse), extended reality (XR), and artificial intelligence accelerates daily, the importance of technology is growing even more." He added, "We will do our best to innovate cultural technology R&D so that our cultural industry can become a future core growth engine that creates high added value and act as a game changer."
This basic plan will be finalized through deliberation and resolution by the National Science and Technology Advisory Council. The council meeting is scheduled to be held before March next year.
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