The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (Minister HWANG Hee, MCST) held “2022 Policy Briefing on Korea Contents” at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea on January 11 to discuss on the overseas expansion of K-contents business, nurturing immersive contents and broadcasting and media contents, preparation of the system to respond against the intellectual property violations of the Korean contents as the Korean contents continue to spread as the Korean Wave.

MCST expects to expand the industrial ripple effect of Hallyu by supporting the overseas expansion of Hallyu contents and related industries. In order to respond to the demand for Hallyu cultural exchanges at home and abroad, contents and four related industries (Culture, Food, Beauty, Brand K) collaborate with relevant ministries and organizations. To expand the industrial influence of Hallyu, the government will support for promotion and marketing of Hallyu related companies and companies in related industries to establish promotion halls in overseas to raise awareness of Hallyu, and hold a Korean Wave Expo in cooperation with related ministries.

To foster the immersive content industry as a future national growth engine, MCST plans to systematically support content production, overseas expansion, and nurturing creative talents. As such, the government will support new markets for the immersive content industry through production and experience using famous intellectual property rights (IP) for movies, webtoons, and games and actively support creation and nurture talents with global competitiveness. In addition, MCST will render cultural resources to reborn as immersive contents by supporting production of immersive contents using the collections of national cultural facilities, including museums, art galleries, and libraries.

As a way to respond to the global interest and growing demand for Korean broadcasting contents, including films, drama, project for enhancing video contents industry will be promoted with a scale of about 40.8 billion KRW. The project includes establishment of planning and developing contests for proposals, production expansion of excellent contents with competitiveness for export, production of Korean subtitles and dubbing. Meanwhile, to respond promptly and systematically to copyright infringement in Hallyu content, MCST will establish a ‘Copyright Infringement Comprehensive Response System’ that can handle work processes from infringement recognition to deliberation measures in an integrated manner.

Minister HWANG Hee said, “Despite difficult circumstances like COVID-19, Korean content is achieving a remarkable result in the global market thanks to the efforts of the cultural industry. The Ministry plans to continue to support the content industry so that the Korean Wave can reach out to fans all over the world and closely communicate with the field.” This briefing was a venue to listen voices from the cultural field, including content creators, producers, and experts, focusing on Korean Wave, immersive contents, OTT, and copyrights.