South Korea gov’t pledges to K-pop firms

Yonhap via The Korea Herald/Asia News Network

SEOUL — South Korea’s culture minister on Friday pledged support toward K-pop companies, suggesting the provision of subsidies and tax incentives to better facilitate the spread of Korean pop culture overseas, according to officials Friday.

In a roundtable meeting with executives of leading K-pop companies held in Seoul, Culture Minister Park Yang-woo suggested ways to support the industry, including government subsidies, tax incentives, and the loosening of regulations related to export of entertainment products.

According to the ministry, Park also promised to provide aid in administrative issues, such as matters related to the mandatory military service of K-pop artists.

“We will not shy away from providing policy support to K-pop to promote and create ‘hallyu’ and for the sector to further develop into the leading exemplary cultural industry of South Korea,” Park said.

Hallyu, or the Korean wave, refers to the popularity of K-pop, K-dramas and other South Korean popular culture at large.

The meeting was attended by senior executives from leading K-pop agencies, including SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment, Big Hit Entertainment, FNC Entertainment and Starship Entertainment.

Mentioning recent paid online concerts by SM and Big Hit, Park praised the industry’s efforts to creatively cope with the new coronavirus pandemic.

“It is a crucial task for the K-pop industry to come up with means of coping with today’s trend of social distancing,” said Park.

He added, “Coming up with high-quality digital-based content unseen in other countries while adopting state of the art technology will be key to the success of hallyu in the future.”

Last Sunday, K-pop act BTS held a paid-online streaming concert, “Bang Bang Con: The Live,” drawing some 756,000 viewers from across 107 countries or regions. The event marked the world’s biggest paid online music event in terms of viewership. Yonhap