A portion of the annual budget will be executed to support Korean content makers damaged by China's protests over Seoul's move to deploy a US missile defense system, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said Thursday.
The proposed portion, 116 billion won ($102 million), will be spent earlier than planned as part of measures to help financially troubled content companies in the game, music, performance and animation industries.
A trade fair for Korean products in Chongqing, China in 2016. (Yonhap)
Beijing has been going all-out to show its dissatisfaction with the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system being deployed in Korea.
The Small and Medium Business Administration has eased rules on loans by including damages incurred by trade protectionism on the list of conditions of emergency management fund application.
At the same time, the SMBA has raised the budget to 125 billion won from 75 billion won to cover what it expects to be increasing demand.
The Korea Creative Content Agency affiliated with the culture ministry will run a center to gather cases of financial damages done to Korean companies doing business in or with China.
In the longer term, the ministry said it will work on diversifying content export markets, especially in Southeast Asian countries which, collectively, are the fourth-largest market after China, Japan and North America. It will expand support measures in Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam, the ministry said. (Yonhap)