Culture Minister to Unveil K-Culture 300 Trillion Won Industry Strategy in January

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism plans to release a comprehensive K-culture industry strategy as early as January, expanding beyond cultural content and arts to include beauty, food, fashion and tourism.

"We will develop a bigger and bolder industrial strategy that doesn't limit K-culture to the cultural content sector but includes new areas," Culture Minister Choi Hwi-young said in an interview with The Seoul Economic Daily at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Jongno-gu, Seoul on Wednesday. "We will present it as early as January."

The Lee Jae-myung administration set a campaign pledge to achieve a 300 trillion won K-culture market, but this figure could be expanded. "We may revise the K-culture market size to a different number, not 300 trillion won, by adding or excluding appropriate sectors," Choi said. "We need to hurry if we want to implement the strategy immediately next year."

True to his background as a businessman, Choi asked rhetorically, "If K-culture is an industry, doesn't it need a realistic target like market size or a declaratory goal?" He added, "It's meaningful only if K-culture can expand beyond 300 trillion won rather than just hitting that number and stopping there."