On February 11, President Park Geun-hye attended the opening ceremony of a "Culture and Creativity Fusion Belt" (unofficial translation), a development center for mass media and pop culture, held at the CJ E&M building in Sangam-dong, Mapo-gu District, Seoul. She looked around the center, which is the first among four planned similar centers across the country.

President Park stressed the necessity to establish a healthy environment for the content industry, a core element for the achievement of a "creative economy," one of her administration's four key policy goals.


During the opening ceremony, President Park said, "The content industry can be the core of a 'creative economy' that could transform small ideas and aspects of one's imagination into commercial mass media products. It's the alchemy of the 21st century, inspiring a wide range of industries, including tourism, education, manufacturing and medicine. It can produce new added value. This Culture and Creativity Fusion Belt will be a platform to visualize cultural enrichment and a 'creative economy.'"


The Culture and Creativity Fusion Belt is part of four pop culture and mass media development centers: the Culture and Creativity Fusion Center, the Culture and Creativity Venture Complex, the Culture and Creativity Academy and the K-Culture Valley.

Opened on February 11, the Culture and Creativity Fusion Center, the first location, will be responsible for supporting plans and for the production of new content. The Culture and Creativity Venture Complex, scheduled to open by the end of 2016, will offer infrastructure and other facilities where a variety of mass media companies and institutions can team up and work together. Also set to open by the end of 2016, the Culture and Creativity Academy will take care of R&D programs and the development of human resources. Finally, the K-Culture Valley will be constructed in 2017 and will feature a multi-functional performance hall, a pop music-themed amusement park and a "Hallyu Street" where tourists can enjoy elements of Korean mass media and pop culture. With the construction of the four centers, the government plans to create a self-reinforcing virtuous cycle, where new content can develop from the planning stages, to production, to visualization and, eventually, to re-investment in the industry.


For the success of the plan, the government will create a new fund amounting to some KRW 60 billion, supported by the government and both public and private organizations. An additional KRW 200 billion will be added by financial institutions. Overall activities will be managed by a "Culture and Creativity Economy Special Committee" (unofficial translation), a newly-launched organization that will be part of the Presidential Committee for Cultural Enrichment.

The opening ceremony was attended by people from across 64 organizations, including the culture ministry and related firms, both public and private. A total of eight memoranda of understanding were signed during the event covering four areas: construction, management, development and financing.

By Lee Seung-ah
photos: Cheong Wa Dae
Korea.net Staff Writer
slee27@korea.kr