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
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दक्षिण कोरिया ने हाल ही में एक अत्यंत महत्वपूर्ण राष्ट्रपति चुनाव के माध्यम से अपने लोकतांत्रिक विकास की एक निर्णायक दहलीज़ पार की है। यह चुनाव केवल राजनीतिक दलों या व्यक्तित्वों के बीच की टक्कर नहीं था , बल्कि यह शासन , जवाबदेही और राष्ट्र के भविष्य को लेकर व्यापक जनचिंताओं का सजीव प्रतिबिंब बन गया—जिसने पूरे देश में मीडिया सुर्खियों और जनचर्चा को गहराई से प्रभावित किया। हालांकि कुछ दक्षिणपंथी विपक्षी नेताओं ने चुनाव में अनियमितताओं का शोर मचाया , लेकिन इन आरोपों को न तो जनता ने गंभीरता से लिया और न ही मीडिया ने। आधिकारिक परिणाम एक स्पष्ट और निर्विवाद जनादेश के रूप में सामने आए , जो दक्षिण कोरिया के जागरूक और संलग्न मतदाताओं की स्पष्ट इच्छा को दर्शाते हैं। डेमोक्रेटिक पार्टी के ली जे-मयोंग ने एक सूक्ष्म रूप से रणनीतिक और समावेशी चुनाव अभियान चलाया , जिसका उद्देश्य राजनीतिक ध्रुवीकरण को पाटना था। उन्होंने केवल पार्टी के परंपरागत समर्थकों को ही नहीं , बल्कि उन मध्यपंथी और उदार दक्षिणपंथी मतदाताओं को भी संबोधित किया , जो बढ़ती राजनीतिक कट्टरता से थक चुके थे। उनका चुनाव...
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