Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Bùi Thanh Sơn speaks at the dialogue on Monday. — Photo baochinhphu.vn

SEOUL — Vietnamese Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyễn Văn Hùng and his Korean counterpart Chae Hwi Young co-chaired a Việt Nam–Republic of Korea (RoK) dialogue on cultural industry cooperation in Seoul on August 11, as part of the ongoing state visit by Party General Secretary Tô Lâm and his spouse.

The event was attended by Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Bùi Thanh Sơn, along with senior officials, experts and leading creative industry enterprises from both countries.

The RoK, a global cultural powerhouse, has ridden the 'Hallyu wave' to worldwide fame through K-pop, films, fashion and cuisine, showcasing culture’s economic and diplomatic clout. With a comprehensive strategic partnership in place, Việt Nam and the RoK are poised for synergy: Việt Nam offers rich cultural heritage and human talent, while the RoK brings expertise, tech and global marketing prowess, creating fertile ground for breakthrough cooperation.

In his speech, Minister Hùng highlighted Việt Nam’s cultural wealth, creative young workforce, and near-100-million-strong market as pillars for building a modern, distinctive and competitive cultural industry on the global stage.

Building on the success of the 2024 Việt Nam-RoK tourism and cultural cooperation forum, the dialogue focused on sharing policy insights, pinpointing investment and production opportunities for quality cultural products and advancing Việt Nam’s target for its cultural sector to contribute 7 per cent of GDP by 2030.

Minister Chae noted that Việt Nam-RoK ties are at a high point, creating an ideal moment to elevate cultural collaboration. He commended Việt Nam’s view of culture and arts as key economic drivers, especially within its digital economy push, social digital transformation and tech-driven content industries.

The RoK Government aims to grow the K-culture market to 300 trillion KRW (US$5.6 million) and cultural exports to 50 trillion KRW by 2030, through expanded enterprise support, cultural technology R&D and AI integration across the creation-production-distribution chain, he said.

Kim Hyun Jun, Director General of the International Cultural Affairs Bureau, detailed the K-content industry’s trajectory, noting its 2023 revenue of 154.2 trillion KRW and exports of $13.34 billion, with ripple effects boosting tourism, cuisine, cosmetics, fashion and automotive sectors. He outlined plans to scale K-content globally via increased policy financing, content investment funds, R&D in performance, video and gaming; international market expansion, overseas business hubs and stronger ties between content and related industries.

Director of the Copyright Office of Việt Nam Trần Hoàng highlighted Việt Nam’s cultural industry development policy over the recent past as well as the Việt Nam–RoK collaboration in the areas of music, cinema, fashion, games and copyright.

He proposed five strategic cooperation directions, namely sharing experiences in building cultural industry policies and laws, promoting joint creative products and brands, collaborating on market and product development, strengthening business connections, investment, and production joint ventures and intensifying specialised training, human resources exchanges and scholarships in key sectors.

At the event, managers, experts and businesses of both sides exchanged experience, shared cooperation needs and proposed business support policies.

Enterprises shared co-production models to train and launch a new generation of versatile artists, with the ambition of taking the Việt Nam wave global.

The Korean side suggested cooperation in building a high-quality and cost-effective animation industry rich in cultural identity and appealing to international audiences through talent exchange, education cooperation and development of a joint technological platform, among others.

Concluding the forum, Deputy Prime Minister Bùi Thanh Sơn expressed his hope that the reached agreements and strategic directions will be translated into concrete programmes and projects soon, helping expand markets, enhance competitive edge and spread the cultural values of both Việt Nam and the RoK regionally and globally.

The Vietnamese Government pledges favourable conditions for the implementation of the initiatives, while encouraging creative enterprises and organiastions to actively participate, making the cultural industry a bridge between the two nations, he added.

Within the event framework, important cooperation document exchanges took place, including a cooperation agreement between Việt Nam Multimedia Corporation (VTC) and T3 Entertainment, and one for the 'Saigon Oppa' film project among BHD Company, Film Line and Web TV Asia. — VNA/VNS