KOCCA ramps up support for K-pop, K-fashion
Hong Sang-pyo
By Kim Ji-soo
A state-run content promotion agency said it will focus on “reviving culture” by providing a platform to further support core contents such as K-pop, K-fashion and K-games.
“To promote these contents, we will invest 210 billion won in some 70 projects,” said Hong Sang-pyo, president of the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA), in a press conference to mark his first year in office.
To that end, the agency is seeking to launch a “Contents Korea Lab,” to support content ideas, a Korea Fund and a cooperative fund for content creators possibly within the year.
“President Park has said in her inaugural speech that she will create jobs by steering a creative economy,” Hong said. “The KOCCA will focus all its energy on the blossoming content sector and the creative economy.”
Hong said now is a good time to shift toward creating good content that integrates human imagination and sentiment with technology, rather than just focusing on technology itself. “It’s important to integrate technology, culture, sentiment and imagination.”
KOCCA will expand its support for Korean singers and groups such as f(x), Guckkasten, No Brain and Galaxy Express to attend the South by Southwest Festival set for March 8-17 in Austin, Texas, in the United States.
The second MU: Con, a music buyers’ conference, is expected to be held in Seoul in early October. KOCCA also assists music industry people and performers to be featured at MEMD in Cannes in January and at “Music Matters” in May in Singapore. A strategic three-month training program will begin in May, to help better understand how “hallyu” or the Korean wave is faring in different markets in Asia, the Americas and Japan.
The agency is also planning a fashion buyers’ market, tentatively dubbed the Fashion Culture Market, for the first time in October.