Skip to main content

Park government ups cultural spending




For the past few years, there have been growing calls for more government spending toward the arts and culture. Korea spends around 1.14 percent of its total budget on culture, and industry insiders are demanding a 2 percent range to catch up with OECD member states on cultural investments.

Amid challenging budget decisions, Korea has slowly increased its cultural spending in the last few years. The ministry announced Tuesday that the 2014 state budget on culture is 5.3 trillion won, a 5.7 percent increase from the previous year.

“Culture recorded the largest increase in next year’s budget, after welfare and employment,” First Vice Culture Minister Cho Hyun-jae said in a press conference. “We will see a continuous raise in the culture budget over the next few years. According to our roadmap, we can expect an average of 11.7 percent increase annually from 2015 through 2017.”

The underlining message of the latest culture ministry report on 2014 budgetary plans is that the Park Geun-hye administration is moving closer toward fulfilling the President’s targeted budgetary increments for culture. As a presidential candidate, Park had pledged that she will aim to achieve the “2 percent state budget on culture.”

She demonstrated an unusual focus on culture during her inaugural address, in which she defined “cultural prosperity” as one of the key agendas of her presidency. She used the word culture 19 times during the address, more than any other of her predecessors during the same occasion.

“There is no disagreement within this administration about the need for culture to ultimately take up 2 percent of the state budget during the President’s term, as she had given her word to the public on this before taking office,” Cho said. “The 2014 culture budget is the first step toward achieving this pledge.”

In elaborating on the budget composition, the vice minister introduced plans to subsidize more projects for bringing cultural experiences to underserved communities.

Next year will be a crucial year for several major sporting events. The ministry will devote 134.6 billion won for preparations for the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang and has acquired sufficient funds for the 2014 Incheon Asian Games and 2015 Gwangju Universiade. Around 23,000 new jobs will be created in the field of culture and sports. But there were no substantial plans to close the cultural gap between Seoul and other parts of the country.

Park has shown up at various cultural functions, most recently at a large-scale book festival in Paju, where she stressed that her administration will focus on bringing more innovation, creativity and wealth to the cultural sector.

She established the Presidential Committee on Cultural Enrichment in July to come up with new ideas for supporting a sector that is fundamentally important to quality of life and identity as a nation. The committee, however, hasn’t really done anything significant so far except hosting a series of seminars in various parts of the country.
Source:Koreatimes

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

किमची कोरिया का मुख्य नहीं बल्कि सह- भोजन(साइड डिश) है ।

<पारम्परिक कोरियाई भोजन का आनंद लेते कुछ वरिष्ठ साथी> भोजन मानव संस्कृति का सबसे महत्वपूर्ण हिस्सा है। कोरियाई संस्कृति भी इस कथन का पूरक है।   कोरिया का खाना यहाँ की सांस्कृतिक पहचान का एक   ऐसा हिस्सा जो भारत और पश्चिमी निवासियों के आहार और प्रचार से काफी अलग है   । कोरिया के भोजन विशेषकर अनाज ( खासकर चावल ) , मांस , और कुछ सब्ज़ियों पर जोर देता है । हालांकि अमेरिका , पूंजीवाद , पश्चिम का प्रभाव और औद्योगीकरण जैसे तत्वों के मेल के साथ यहाँ के लोगों ने पिज्जा , हैमबर्गर और   बीयर को भी अपनाया है ।   इसके अलावा जापानी सुशी और चीन के कुछ भोजन तथा दक्षिण पूर्वी एशिया और भारत के व्यंजनों की लोकप्रियता भी प्रमुख है।     कोरियाई भोजन में साधारणतः चावल , सूप या स्टू , और कई साइड व्यंजन रहते है और लगभग सभी खानों में साइड व्यंजन के रूप में किमची या मसालेदार सब्जियां रहती है । राष्ट्रीय आहार में किमची का सबसे ज्यादा ...

모디 "한국-인도 동반자관계, 아시아 성장·안정에 이바지"

나확진 특파원 = 나렌드라 모디 인도 총리가 "한국과 인도의 동반자 관계가 아시아의 성장과 안정, 번영에 이바지할 것"이라며 양국 협력의 필요성을 강조했다. 모디 총리는 27일 인도 뉴델리에서 열린 한-인도 비즈니스 서밋에 참석해 기조연설에서 이같이 말했다. 그는 인도에서 건너와 가락국 김수로왕과 결혼했다는 허 왕후 설화에서부터 불교의 전파, 한국을 '동방의 등불'이라고 부른 인도 시인 라빈드라나트 타고르 등을 언급하면서 양국 관련성을 강조했다. 그는 구자라트 주 총리로 재직 당시 방한 경험을 거론하며 "세계적인 브랜드를 만들고 유지하는 한국 국민을 존경한다"고 말했다. 그는 자동차, 철강, 조선, 주택, 도시개발, 철도, 에너지 등 여러 분야에서 두 나라의 협력 가능성이 크다며 양국이 협력해 아프리카 등 제삼국 시장으로도 함께 진출하자고 덧붙였다. 코트라와 조선일보, 인도경제인연합회(CII)가 공동 주최한 이번 행사에 백운규 산업통상자원부 장관, 송영길 한국·인도 국회의원 친선협의회장, 대한상공회의소 회장인 박용만 두산인프라코어 회장, 최태원 SK그룹 회장, 정의선 현대차그룹 부회장, 손경식 CJ그룹 회장, 조양호 한진그룹 회장, 조현준 효성그룹 회장, 권오준 포스코 회장 등이 참석했다. 모디 총리 외에 아룬 제틀리 재무장관, 수레시 푸라브 상공부 장관, 라비 샨카르 프라사드 정보기술부 장관과 마힌드라 그룹의 아난드 마힌드라 회장 등이 참석했다. 모디 총리는 박용만 회장 등 한국 경제인들과 별도로 간담회를 하고 인도 정부에 바라는 점과 투자 애로 등을 청취했다. 또 현대차가 만든 수소전기차 '넥쏘'에 정의선 부회장과 함께 탑승하기도 했다. 백운규 장관은 "조선, 자동차, 철강, 전자 등 한국이 경쟁력이 있는 분야에서 인도와 협력을 강화할 필요가 있다"면서 "스마트 시티와 전력 등 인도 인프라·에너지 분야에서는...

Teaming up Korea, India ...science and technology

Teaming up Korea, India ...science and technology N.K. has around 30,000 electron... Remote-control craft expand U.S... Half of singles have no interes... Banks to buy W1tr in toxic loan... FSC delays ruling on Lone Star’... Prosecutors discover more FSS m... Home-backed lending jumps W2.4t... Money supply growth declines to... Science and technology are two driving forces for the economies of South Korea and India, with tremendous potential for projects that link both sides. To capitalize on this potential, India’s Science and Technology Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal came to Seoul to take part in the first Ministerial Steering Committee meeting on May 4. Education, Science and Technology Minister Lee Ju-ho (left) with India Science and Technology Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal during the 1st India-Korea Science and Technology Ministerial Steering Committee. (India Embassy) “We agreed on the need to promote human resource exchange and joint research in promising next-generation...