By Lee Tae-hoon
Korea will seek to make traditional Confucian schools and temples with high cultural value gain UNESCO world heritage status to improve the nation’s underestimated global image, a presidential council reported Friday.
In a report to President Lee Myung-bak, the Presidential Council on Nation Branding (PCNB) said Korea’s national brand image ranked 19th last year, while the actual value stood at 15th among the world’s 50 major nations.
The branding council underlined that it will launch a project that aims to make nine Confucian schools, including Sosu Seowon and Dosan Seowon, listed as world heritage sites by 2014, and a number of Buddhist temples by 2015.
The nine Confucian schools, called "seowon" in Korean, were listed early last month as provisional world heritage assets by UNESCO, raising prospects of achieving the council’s goal.
The PCNB is reportedly considering Tongdo Temple and Haein Temple as possible candidates to promote as world heritage sites.
In a press release, the presidential body said that it plans to make a documentary, hold international conferences and invite the public and experts to its short listed seowon and temples this year as part of its promotional campaign.
The council also reported that it will train tour guides with a deep knowledge of the country's cultural assets and fluency in foreign languages.
The council said it will train 90 guides, 30 each to be fluent in English, Japanese and Chinese.
“It is time for us to pay attention to our cultural assets,” Lee was quoted as saying by presidential spokesman Park Jeong-ha. “Getting recognition not only in the economy, but also in culture and sports is important. This is a way to becoming an advanced nation.”
According to a comprehensive study by the PCNB and Samsung Economic Research Institute (SERI), Korea’s brand image rose to 97 percent of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) nations’ average last year, up from 93 in 2010.
Its brand image stood at 89 percent of the OECD average in 2010.
PCNB and SERI came up with the figures based on a survey of 13,500 opinion leaders in 26 countries conducted from Nov. 4 through 11 in 2011.
In the joint research, Japan topped the brand image index, followed by Germany, the United States, Canada and Britain.
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"北 GPS공격 중단시점, 中이 알게된 때와 같아"
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