South Korea's cultural industry as a model 

SOUTH Korean telenovelas, K-pop music and films have taken the world by storm. "Extraordinary Atty. Woo" rules on Netflix, BTS tops worldwide music charts, and "Parasite" won the plum prize at the Cannes Film Festival. These cultural forms are called the "Hallyu."

Hallyu is a Chinese term that is translated as "Korean Wave." It covers everything from K-Pop to Gangnam rap to movies to online games to drama to Korean cuisine, with Korean barbecue restaurants and groceries spreading around the world. In a savvy strategy, the South Korean investors used culture to promote the clothes, food, even the literature of South Korea.

But such cultural forms called "Hallyu" did not happen overnight. They are the products of a long, sustained and well-funded investment strategy. This happened because South Korea may possibly be "the only country in the world that has a dedicated goal to become the world's leading exporter of popular culture," according to Martin Roll, an international business consultant.

He said that Hallyu "is a way for Korea to develop its 'soft power'... It refers to the intangible power a country wields through its image, rather than through hard force." One-third of all venture capital in Korea is spent on the entertainment industry, according to Roll.

Read more: South Korea's cultural industry as a model | The Manila Times