Culture is new growth engine

President Park Geun-hye greets children who participated in a taekwondo performance at Olympic Park in southern Seoul on Dec. 30 last year. It was one of the events held to mark Culture Day, the last Wednesday of every month, and some 200 children were invited to the event. / Joint Press Corps

President focuses on cultural diplomacy to develop overseas markets

By Kang Seung-woo

One of the biggest achievements of President Park Geun-hye, who finished her third year in office on Feb. 25, is that she has paved the way for the culture industry to become a new economic growth engine.

With the building of the Culture Creation Convergence Belt under way, the government is seeking to create more jobs and develop more overseas markets for Korean cultural content.

The designation of “Culture Day,” the last Wednesday of every month aimed at helping foster more involvement in culture and the arts, is encouraging for artists and culture firms.

The government’s efforts to have the nation’s cultural traditions registered as part of UNESCO’s cultural heritage have also paid off after adding nine new items to the organization’s list between 2013 and 2015.

These programs are central elements of Park’s creative economy initiative ― she has prioritized cultural enrichment in a belief that it will play a role for a great takeoff of the national economy.

In February last year, the government began building the Culture Creation Convergence Belt to help tech venture start-ups work with each other to develop and commercialize creative ideas and foster talent in the culture and content industries.

The belt is comprised of the Creative Center for Convergence Culture and the Culture Creation Venture Complex, where content will be created and convergence will occur, the Creative Economy Leaders Academy, where talented human resources will be incubated and where support technology will be developed, and a cluster of cultural performance facilities, such as “K-Culture Valley,” “K-Experience complex cultural space” and “K-Pop Arena.”

The Creative Center for Convergence Culture is run jointly by the government and CJ E&M, a leading content and media company in the nation, while the government opened the venture cluster in December in the former office building of the Korea Tourism Organization in downtown Seoul. It is now home to 93 start-ups that have some 500 employees combined.

“I hope the Culture Creation Venture Complex can lead to a great development in the cultural content sector, further develop this new industry and become the heart of Korea’s economic revitalization, growing continuously in the coming years,” President Park said during the opening ceremony of the Culture Creation Venture Complex.

“The cultural content industry creates more than twice as many jobs as the manufacturing industry does. Also, more than half of the employees in the sector are less than 34 years old. It is therefore an industry for youth, which guarantees sustainable growth. The newly opened complex is your future and the future of the country.”

According to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the government plans to upgrade the cultural belt this year by building a network among the start-ups and some 120 regionally based centers in the fields of cultural-content and ICT industries, and boosting the companies’ cooperation with other government offices and the civilian population.

‘Culture Day’

On the establishment of institutional groundwork, Culture Day has increasingly offered various opportunities for hardworking Koreans easily to enjoy cultural events, including discounts on entrance fees at museums, sports events, movies, theaters and exhibitions on the last Wednesday of the month.

Since Culture Day began in January 2014, the number of its programs has increased from 883 to 2,081 in November 2015, while its public recognition has gone from 19 percent to 45.2 percent last August.

The program enables residents and low-income families to enjoy cultural events easily, while building a culture and art center to support disabled artists.

Riding this growth, the government intends to expand the programs, believing that the government’s efforts to create a virtuous cycle of increasing people’s consumption of cultural products can boost the growth of the industry and eventually help improve the overall quality of life.

In addition, the ministry hopes to increase the number of Culture Day programs to 2,300 this year from 2,081 last November. It will also work to widely publicize the program by introducing cultural events nationwide and boosting incentives for private companies and government agencies to participate in the program.

‘Cultural diplomacy’

During President Park’s overseas trips last year, she attended many cultural events to promote Korean culture and expand cultural ties with other countries. The events included a puppet show, a fashion show and a K-pop concert.

Thanks to the growing popularity of the nation’s cultural exports, including soap operas and music, in China, Japan and other Asian countries in recent years, the government seeks to take advantage of this popularity in developing the nation’s cultural industry and, eventually, the nation’s economy.

Park traveled to the Czech Republic in December ― the first time in 20 years by a Korean President ― and did not waste the rare chance to attend a K-pop concert, hoping the performance would bring the Czech Republic and Korea closer and that more people would take an interest in Korea and its culture.

In September, she also visited the Korean Cultural Service in New York ― the first time an incumbent President has visited a cultural center overseas since the nation began to open such centers in 1979 ― and encouraged 16 Americans who have been appointed as “K-Culture supporters” to help promote Korean culture across the United States, thus underscoring Park’s commitment to enhancing the nation’s culture.

Along with those events, Park visited UNESCO in December and gave a speech stressing the need to share the results of its cultural prosperity with the rest of the world.

It was also the first time a Korean President has visited UNESCO and delivered a speech.