Culture Minister Holds Longest-Ever 4h27m Agency Review, Demands Results
Creatrip Team
7 months ago
On Jan. 13 in Seoul, Culture, Sports and Tourism Minister Choi Hwi-young chaired a marathon 4 hour 27 minute live-streamed review of 18 ministry-affiliated public agencies (e.g., Korean Culture and Arts Commission, Korea Creative Content Agency). He pressed agencies to shift to performance-driven policies, saying organizations must prove their existence by producing concrete results or lose the right to operate with public funds. Choi criticized lack of clear goals, weak fairness in arts grant reviews, a malfunctioning “artist activity certification” system, one-year project funding that narrows production cycles, and insufficient data-standardization at the Korea Tourism Organization. Agency heads pledged reforms—overhauling reviewer pools, updating certification systems, creating specialist personnel tracks, and building data-driven decision processes (including an AI innovation unit). Choi said he will recheck progress in six months and urged agency chiefs to act as “field commanders.” The ministry continues follow-up agency briefings this week.
