Promotion of Metropolitan Leading City as 'Korea Cultural City'
Korean Arts 2.0 Era... Expanding Opportunities for Young Artists
Fostering Large-Scale Festivals Attracting Global Visitors
Establishment of Mid-Budget Film Production Support Program
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced on the 28th that the budget for next year has been set at 7.1214 trillion won. This is an increase of 2.4% (166.9 billion won) compared to this year. The plan is to prepare for the future of K-Culture while realizing cultural welfare to improve the quality of life.
The sector with the largest budget increase is culture and arts. It has been set at 2.409 trillion won, an increase of 40.7 billion won from this year. Content is allocated 1.2995 trillion won, up 1.5%, tourism is increased by 2.4% to 1.3479 trillion won, and sports is set at 1.6751 trillion won, up by 58.7 billion won.
A significant portion is reflected in new projects to prepare for future culture. There are ten major initiatives. The project receiving the most attention is the promotion of the “Korea Cultural City,” a metropolitan-type leading city. It aims to comprehensively improve the cultural environment of nearby areas by utilizing distinctive local cultural resources. Basic plans will also be initiated for the establishment of a Video Museum and a Hall of Fame for Popular Culture and Arts. The latter will be a commemorative space encompassing all fields of the 100-year history of popular culture.
The Ministry is also preparing for the Korean Arts 2.0 era. To expand opportunities for young artists, the next generation leaders of K-Art, the number of young trainees in national art organizations will increase from 350 to 600, and a youth arts troupe will be established. A performance arts creation and production space will also be created to support rehearsals and stage production for national art organizations.
Large-scale festivals representing Korea and attracting global visitors will also be fostered. In particular, efforts will be made to grow a world-class international performing arts festival to develop it into a hub market for the performing arts sector. The “Beyond K Festa” (tentative name) will also be held. This is a large-scale comprehensive Hallyu event covering all related industries. It will be nurtured as a representative event of Korea.
The Ministry will also focus on projects that promote cultural enjoyment for the public. Support will be provided for cultural arts and content enjoyment in industrial complexes with weak cultural infrastructure, and development of tourism products linked to industrial complexes will be supported. Additionally, a pilot model of a “Children’s Complex Cultural Space” will be created where children and families can experience diverse arts, and regional tourism revitalization projects using marine content and other new themes will be actively promoted.
The Ministry regards the entire cultural industry as a core growth engine of the national economy. It plans to promote investment and support corporate growth by reorganizing policy finance. The key is the newly established “Global League Fund.” Using 40 billion won of government capital as seed money, it will attract overseas capital to create a fund of about 100 billion won.
Projects to solidify the status of Korea as a content powerhouse will also be undertaken. Support for console games, which have a weak domestic base, will be significantly strengthened, and overseas expansion of intellectual property (IP) such as promising comics and webtoons will be promoted.
Co-growth with related industries such as beauty and food will also be pursued. The joint Hallyu expo with related ministries will increase from two to three times a year, and five additional overseas business centers, serving as overseas bases for domestic content companies, will be established.
Several measures have also been prepared for a new leap in the video industry. In particular, a mid-budget film production support project will be newly established, and support for planning and development as well as film festivals will be expanded. For the growing animation sector, a specialized fund will be created with an investment of 10 billion won. Support will be provided for IP-based production and overseas expansion, assisting entry into markets such as China.
Field opinions will be extensively reflected in efforts to revitalize publishing and bookstores. Book distribution and sharing projects will be expanded, and reading-based regions will be revitalized. Additionally, support for digital reading expansion will be provided, and the “Reading Korea” campaign will be carried out to promote reading culture.
The Ministry will also strengthen public-private cooperation to establish the “Neulbom School,” a national agenda of the Yoon Seok-yeol administration. In cooperation with public and private cultural and artistic institutions, ten new customized cultural and artistic programs for lower-grade elementary students will be developed. Media education programs will also be supported at about 1,000 Neulbom Schools nationwide.
The support amount for the “Integrated Cultural Voucher (Munhwa Nuri Card),” which provides cultural activity opportunities to basic livelihood security recipients and lower-income groups, will be increased from 140,000 won to 150,000 won annually. The number of beneficiaries will also increase by 60,000, with a total of 2.64 million people expected to benefit.
In sports, emphasis will be placed on supporting the next generation of national representatives. The number of national team candidate athletes, youth representatives, and promising athletes will be significantly increased. Additionally, a new project will be launched to support employment and overseas coaching advancement for retired athletes.
Among the living sports budget previously supported through the Korea Sports Council, part of it (41.6 billion won) will be converted into local cooperation projects. This is to operate customized programs considering the preferences and facilities of local residents. The scale of living sports support budgets will be increased through local government matching funds.
A Ministry official said, “By integrating the management of national and local government funds, we expect to enhance the efficiency and transparency of subsidy management,” adding, “Starting with this, we will continuously reform the budget system to effectively implement sports policies.”
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