The government intends to spend KRW 452.2 billion in 2015 to promote the creative industries.

The government announced its action plan to promote the creative industries during its "fifth contents industry promotion committee meeting" presided over by the prime minister on December 31, 2014.

The action plan consists of five strategies to strengthen the competiveness of Korea's creative industries and to establish a cooperative system in which to nurture them.

The five strategies are: to create a foundation to promote investment, financing and related technologies; to promote the creative industries, to generate new jobs and businesses and to train talented human resources; to expand international cooperation; to encourage the healthy use of cultural content and to create a proper environment in which to do so; and, finally, to strengthen the competitiveness of a diverse range of creative content and to establish a cooperative environment in which to promote the creative industries.

For that purpose, the government has allocated KRW 452.2 billion from this year's budget. A total of KRW 914.5 billion will be spent between 2014 and 2015, beginning with last year's "second basic plan."

The five key strategies

- To establish a foundation that will strengthen the competitiveness of the local creative industries

The government intends to jointly create funds, including the Korea-China international fund worth KRW 40 billion, that will expand financing opportunities for the creative industries. The Korea-China fund will be worth KRW 200 billion when private funds are included. Digital content funds worth KRW 100 billion will also be formed. The government will consider building an "urban digital theme park" and provide interactive education and broadcasting services.

- To promote the creative industries, generate new jobs and businesses and train talented human resources

The government plans to expand the regional Content Korea Lab to help people commercialize their ideas related to the creative industries and to promote conversion between cultural resources and new ideas. It will also help create new businesses through startup schools and training centers, and support future entrepreneurs.

- To expand international cooperation

The government intends to strengthen government-wide cooperation measures to share export-related information and set up export strategies. In order to expand existing overseas markets, it will further expand cooperation with other Asian nations. It will support Korean film festivals and help broadcast Korean TV soap operas abroad in a bid to promote cultural exchange and to improve Korea's reputation. It will also provide more support for global joint productions by international broadcasters.

- To form a healthy environment and to promote the proper use of content

The government hopes to create business models that would bring mutual growth for small- and medium-sized enterprises, as well as for large companies. It intends to raise KRW 19 billion in capital to form a consortium, and establish and manage a music information collection system for the fair distribution of profits in relation to intellectual property rights.

- To strengthen the competitiveness of a diverse range of content and to form a cooperative environment

In order to support the mobile content industry and the conversion between technology and content, the government intends to support interactive smart media and mobile game companies, and upgrade related laws to put more emphasis on digital media, a change from the prior focus on offline regulations.