New content trade forums target China marketplace

The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning is launching a forum with domestic experts on the market for creative content in China in an effort to promote Korean exports.

The Fengyou Policy Forum brings together 50 government officials, China experts and representatives of Korean companies exporting creative content such as television dramas, computer graphics and video games.

The forum will have its first meeting today in Seoul.

The forum precedes a Korea-China policy meeting on cooperation in the content trade. Future Minister Choi Mun-kee agreed with his Chinese counterpart in May to cooperate in the promotion of intellectual property through bilateral policy discussions. The first such Korea-China policy meeting will be held next month.

“We want to strengthen our internal capability regarding our policy on creative content through the Fengyou Policy Forum before embarking on a discussion with the Chinese government,” said an official of the ministry.

Participants in the forum today will use a case study to discuss a successful content export policy, and the outcome of the forum will be reflected in drafting the government’s policy, the ministry said.

The ministry plans to hold these forums on a regular basis. Fengyou is Chinese for friends.

Korea’s creative-content exports to the world’s second-largest economy are currently limited to computer graphics, dramas and games.

Korea exported $1 billion worth of content to China last year, 90 percent of it involving games. It exported 4.6 billion won ($4.3 million) in computer graphic content to China last year.

“For the growth of the domestic content industry, it is indispensable to go overseas, in particular to China,” said Park Il-joon, a senior official at the software policy division at the ministry.

BY MOON GWANG-LIP [joe@joongang.co.kr]