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Culture Ministry finalizes 2025 budget to turn Korea into 'cultural powerhouse'

Published: 11 Dec. 2024, 14:10

YIM SEUNG-HYE
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Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Yu In-chon [NEWS1]

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s budget for next year has been finalized at 7.067 trillion won ($4.9 billion), marking a 1.6% increase of 112.7 billion won from the year prior.

The Culture Ministry announced Wednesday that the 2025 budget plan was approved during a plenary session of the National Assembly. According to the ministry, the budget was designed with a focus on creating a "global cultural powerhouse" while enhancing the satisfaction of the public's “everyday cultural experiences.”

The largest portion of the budget, which is 2.38 trillion won, will be allocated to the culture and arts sector. Key allocations include 263.6 billion won for the Integrated Cultural Voucher Program, 13.2 billion won to support young trainees in national arts organizations and 5.2 billion won for fostering world-class performing arts festivals. New initiatives include 40 billion won for creating Korean cultural cities, 4.9 billion won for operating youth arts groups and 2.9 billion won for running theater companies for children and the youth.

The content sector has been allocated a total of 1.27 trillion won. This includes 13.5 billion won to support the overseas expansion of comics and webtoons, 15.5 billion won to support the gaming industry, 12 billion won to organize joint Hallyu expos with other related ministries and 18.3 billion won for regional specialized content development.

Additionally, 40 billion won has been earmarked for the Global League Fund, 10 billion won for medium-budget film production and 8 billion won for large-scale Hallyu events.

The budget for the sports sector has been set at 1.67 trillion won.

A total of 131.3 billion won of that allocated budget will be used on sports class vouchers for disadvantaged and disabled groups, 14.1 billion won for regional lifestyle sports activities, 68.7 billion won for training national teams and 27.6 billion won for developing youth athletes and prospects.

As for the tourism sector, a total of 1.3477 trillion won has been allocated. The largest portion, 586.5 billion won, will go toward loans for tourism businesses. Other items include 78.8 billion won for developing tourism in the southern regions, 3.6 billion won for marketing activities related to K-culture, 4.2 billion won for overseas marketing and promotions by tourism service companies and 8.2 billion won for boosting regional tourism, including bicycles, heritage sites and cruises.

BY YIM SEUNG-HYE [[email protected]]