Facilities use surges by 70% on the ’Day of Culture’

What achievements have the government`s culture policy made this year? The Culture, Sports and Tourism Ministry complied and announced achievements in various fields on Wednesday.

Culture = “Day of Culture,” the last Wednesday of each month, saw the number of participating cultural facilities significantly increase. The number increased 78 percent from 883 in January to 1,574 in November. As the program has made quantitative growth, it is contributing to expanding the base of culture, but the key to success is to secure competitive, popular pieces of artwork.

The opening of the National Hangeul Museum by the National Museum of Korea is another issue of interest. The National Hangeul Museum, which opened on Hangeul Day (October 9) this year, was visited by more than 100,000 people during about two months through Dec. 11. In the architecture field, the Korean Pavilion received the "Golden Lion (Leone d’Oro)" award, the grand prize, at the Venice Biennale for the first time since it began joining the event in 1995.

Contents = As of the end of this year, sales in the contents industry amounted to 97 trillion won (88.6 billion dollars), and the nation’s contents export hit 5.5 billion dollars, which represent up by 5.4 percent and 12 percent, respectively. Due to the Korea-China Free Trade Agreement, K-pop music, musicals and live concerts can now more freely make a foray into the Chinese market. After Korea signed the "agreement on joint production of movies" in July this year, there is no longer restriction to the number of movies exported to China, if they are produced jointly by Korea and China. After its launching to support contents production startups in May, Contents Korea Lab" has benefited a total of 14 teams thus far.

Sports = A whistleblowing center was established, and a joint investigation team is operating to root out four major corruptions - biased judgment in sports competitions; violence; irregularities at athletes’ school admissions; privatization of sports organizations. These measures are followed by corruption investigation in the sport field last year. A total of 220,000 students have participated in afterschool sports programs, which are operated outside schools beginning this year.

Tourism = The number of foreign tourists visiting Korea has topped 14 million this year. Tourism income is projected to hit 16.7 billion dollars through the end of this year, which will be an all-time high. In particular, the number of Chinese tourists is expected to reach 6 million, up 38 percent from last year.