Foreign visitors at Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul's Jongno-gu District on April 22 take a group photo. (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism official Heo Man-jin)

By Kim Hyelin

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on Aug. 29 said its Cabinet-approved budget for next year is KRW 6.97 trillion. 

The figure is up 3.5% or KRW 238.8 billion from this year's amount and accounts for 8.7% of the government's overall 2024 budget of KRW 656.9 trillion.

The content industry received the highest increase. The scale of policy financing for this sector reached a record-high KRW 1.77 trillion, more than double the amount last year, through higher investment in a parent fund for content worth KRW 360 billion.

Of this, KRW 290 billion will go to setting up the K-Content Fund, which invests in companies and projects for export and securing intellectual property rights (IP); KRW 25 billion won for forming a professional visual association for the film industry; and KRW 45 billion for creating a new content strategy fund.

Ten business centers abroad will be added to develop export channels for Korean content. The budget for supporting industries related to Hallyu (Korean Wave) like joint inter-ministerial exhibitions and promotional centers in other countries will be expanded to KRW 27.4 billion.

Next year's tourism budget of KRW 1.36 trillion will focus on attracting foreign tourists and improving the tourism deficit. 

The budget for the Visit Korea Year campaign was raised to KRW 17.8 billion and KRW 7.3 billion will be allocated to create the proper tourism atmosphere in the country, and that for raising the quality of tourism services was set at KRW 1.6 billion. Another KRW 33 billion will go toward building a complex culture and arts venue at Cheong Wa Dae and KRW 25 billion for creating templestay programs at Buddhist temples.

In arts, the promotional budget was raised to KRW 44.1 billion next year from KRW 35.6 billion this year. Of this amount, KRW 1.3 billion is for supporting up-and-coming artists who lack affiliation with galleries, KRW 4.7 billion in new funding for projects showcasing domestic artworks abroad and KRW 4.4 billion for ensuring the internal stability of the Korean Artists Welfare Foundation.

In publishing, KRW 7.7 billion will go to publishers to explore overseas market entries and train human resources, KRW 3 billion to incubate small and medium publishers, KRW 900 million for the web novel sector, and KRW 3.9 billion for protecting intellectual property rights and preventing copyright violations.

Sports got its largest loan support in history as its budget next year was sharply raised 193.7% to KRW 235 billion from KRW 80 billion this year.

Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Park Bo Gyoon said, "We will support exports and job creation in K-Content, K-Tourism and K-Sports while supporting the public so that they can enjoy and appreciate culture in a fair and non-discriminating manner."

kimhyelin211@korea.kr