The Cultural Heritage Administration on Feb. 22 announced changing its name to the tentative National Heritage Administration on May 17 as one of its main tasks this year. (Korea.net DB)

By Park Hye Ri

The Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA) in May will change its name to the tentative National Heritage Administration.

CHA on Feb. 22 made the announcement at Government Complex-Seoul in the capital's Jongno-gu District, where it released its main policy initiatives for this year under the vision "National Heritage Making a New Leap by Embracing Future Values."

Last year, the cultural body prepared the tentatively named Basic Act on Korean Heritage to overcome the limits of the Cultural Heritage Protection Act 60 years after the latter's enactment in 1962.

Thus the term "cultural heritage" will be changed to "national heritage" spanning all cultural, natural and intangible heritage. From May 17, CHA will be tentatively renamed along the lines of the National Heritage Administration.

To manage a stable supply and demand and quality of traditional materials in cultural heritage, CHA in September will open the tentatively named National Heritage Restoration Materials Center in Bonghwa-gun County, Gyeongsangbuk-do Province, and launch the country's first certification system for such materials.

Another plan is to set up the tentatively named National Natural Heritage Center to ensure specialized preservation, research and use of such heritage. And for intangible heritage, a new incentive fund worth KRW 1.6 billion will support leading experts on national intangible heritage and activities to pass on such heritage to 270 people.

The period on permission to take artworks outside of Korea will be expanded to after 1946, as CHA is revising the rule barring such items older than 50 years from leaving the country without government permission. CHA is amending the law, however, so that works created in 1946 or after can be taken outside of Korea or exported without restriction.

A new policy from the second half of this year will seek to preserve and manage cultural heritage under 50 years old. CHA will designate such items through a contest in May.

The body will also set up a base in France to preserve and repatriate Korean cultural heritage in Europe, as well as provide data and hold exhibitions on such relics held abroad.

CHA Administrator Choi Eung-Chon said, "To be newly launched on May 17, the National Heritage Administration will do all it can to enhance the people's quality of life and raise the country's dignity through national heritage."

hrhr@korea.kr