POSTED: September 6th 2011

NewsUpdate

South Korea has a new Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism

Sports Features Communications

TAMPA: Kwang-sik Choi  is set to become the new sports minister of Korea replacing former Minister Byoung-gug Choung as reported in the Korea JoongAng Daily. One of the new minister's goals is to export Korean culture around the world through sports.

Choi met with the press right after President Myung-bak Lee appointed him.

He has been studying ways that sports, culture, religion and national public relations can interact and the World Championships of athletics in Daegu taking place August 27-September 4th were a good platform.

Also the Gyeongju World Culture Expo was taking place simultaneously August 12-October 10th and then the same city will host the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) October 8-14th who will hold its annual general assembly.

There are many events coming up that the South Korean government is going to have to plan for including the Special Olympics 2013 Winter Games, the 2015 Gwangju Summer Universiade, and the newly elected PyeongChang 2018 Winter Games.

South Korea spends half the amount of other nations on sport and culture and now with these elite level events coming to the country it is paramount to use the occasions as a means to boost tourism. South Korea will have plenty of chances to highlight their culture.

Choi also plans to expand the Ministry’s budget next year for more assistance as Korea currently gets 1.1 percent and he targets 1.5 percent. Many OECD countries allocate from 2 to 3 percent for their culture ministries.

Obviously it is a key priority to get the most exposure for these three high level sports events that will attract competitors, their entourages and media from around the world.

He already cleverly utilized the G-20 Summit last year in an effort to get the rest world aware of what Korean culture is all about by having them host a dinner reception at the National Museum of Korea. He even impressed U.S. president Barack Obama who had no idea that Korean culture was so unique.

Something that works in Choi’s favor is that he was a former history professor. He has an understanding of the history of sport and also has connections among the G-20 members.

His appreciation of history teaches him that the only way to achieve success in sport is to incorporate it into the larger framework of what it can teach us about ourselves. Creating that synergy will be one of the big factors in the success of sport in South Korea.

Keywords · Minister Choung Byoung-gug · Choi Kwang-sik · Special Olympics 2013 Winter Games · PyeongChang 2018 · 2015 Gwangju Summer Universiade

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