Ministry reshuffle angers sports community

After just two months in office, Culture, Sports and Tourism Minister Kim Jong-deok has overseen a major reshuffle. / Yonhap

By Kwon Mee-yoo and Nam Hyun-woo

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) completed a major reshuffle this week to bring more efficiency to their organization. But the sudden restructuring has triggered some opposition, particularly from the sports experts who claim that the ministry has undermined the sports policy department.

The gist of the reshuffle is that it combines sports and tourism into one office. The restructure comes as the new MCST minister Kim Jong-deok, a visual design professor at Hongik University and public relations expert, marks two months in office.

“The restructuring plan seems to be aimed at drawing synergy effect of tourism and sports, but it is not that realistic,” said Professor Park Jong-hoon of Catholic Kwandong University. “The reason this plan is nothing more than wordplay is that there is no case of successful government-led convergence between sports and tourism.”

Chun Byung-kwyan, professor of Kyung Hee University and president of Korean Alliance For Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, criticized the ministry for a “nonsense and a short-sighted policy.”

The plan has also been hit by culture and sports experts at the National Assembly. Rep. Han Sun-kyo of Saenuri Party, a member of the National Assembly’s education, culture, sports and tourism committee, slammed the minister for not notifying or discussing about the major restructure of the MCST during an audit on Oct. 24. “Now the second vice minister will dominate about half of the ministry. It’s almost a coup,” Han said.

Rep. Elisa Lee of the ruling Saenuri Party pointed out that the ministry again downsize the importance of sports, merging sports into tourism during the general audit of the MCST.

The MCST said it would maintain the new organizational structure at least for a while.

“The new structure went into effect a short time ago and it is not likely that we will adjust the reshuffle anytime soon to accommodate some lawmakers’ complaints,” the ministry official said­ .

Some experts see a positive side of the restructure. Professor Kim Hyun-duk of Department of Sports Marketing at Keimyung University said the reshuffle does not weaken the sports sector.

“The more important thing is the flow of money and the sports budget has been increased since 2010,” Kim said.

Last week, the ministry merged bureaus that have overlapping duties.

The ministry previously had four offices and six bureaus but now it has six offices. The Cultural Policy Bureau, Arts Bureau and Cultural Infrastructure Bureau have formed the Culture and Arts Policy Office, while the Tourism Industry Bureau, Sports Bureau and Director General for Tourism and Leisure City Planning gave been merged into the Tourism, Sports and Leisure Policy Office.

Some responsibilities of the first and second vice ministers have changed as well. The second vice minister Kim Chong was specializing mainly in sports, but now he oversees the Tourism, Sports and Leisure Policy Office and the Religious Affairs Office. The tourism bureau and the religious affairs office were previously the charge of the first vice minister Kim Hee-beom. The Media Policy Bureau, formerly a responsibility of the second vice minister, now has to answer to the first vice minister.

“The MCST covers a wide range of issues of culture, sports and tourism, including some 1,300 tasks. This restructure aims to be more effective by merging sports, leisure and tourism and reinforcing new media and cultural prosperity,” a culture ministry official said.

The ministry is based in Sejong City and has more than 2,000 staff members.