Korea has recently announced its long-term plan to support research and development (R&D) into cultural content industries and into related so-called "culture technology" fields, such as the tech used in movies, broadcasting, games, animation, performances and exhibitions. 

The Korean government announced its Second Basic Plan for Culture Technology R&D on December 19, all part of its goal to enrich the cultural sphere, to develop the creative industries and to increase the happiness of the people.

The plan contains the two main strategic tasks of boosting competitiveness and increasing the happiness of the people, both by developing R&D in culture-related industries. The plan also proposes a future direction for R&D investment in "culture technology," all part of the administration’s vision for the creative industries. 

Combining culture and technology, the catchphrase "culture technology" was coined in 2001 to describe one of the government’s six main future-oriented technologies, along with the likes of information technology, biotechnology and nano technology. As the content industry converges with IT, so-called "culture technology" can now be applied to the entertainment, education, medical, national defense, manufacturing, robotics and automobile sectors, all of which now put a much higher emphasis on "culture technology." 

Currently, the Korean government considers itself as having 72.5 percent of the technological capability of some other advanced countries. Part of the goal of this new plan is to increase that to 85 percent by 2017. Concurrently, and also by 2017, the government plans to increase the country's "culture, leisure and happiness index" (unofficial translation) to more than 30 percent by carrying out more R&D into the creative industries. Finally, the government also plans to increase the number of commercialized technologies from 1.1 cases per  KRW 100 million of government investment to 1.3 cases by 2017.