Look, let's be honest, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has drafted a budget proposal of 9,634.5 billion won for 2027. This marks the very first time the Ministry's budget has ever crossed the 9 trillion won threshold.

When stacked against the main budget for 2026 at 7,855.5 billion won, that is a chunky 22.6% increase, translating to an extra 1,779 billion won. This growth rate is roughly double the government's total expenditure increase of 12.8%. Ever since the cultural budget broke past 1% of the total budget back in the year 2000, seeing a growth rate in the 20% range is quite literally a first for the Ministry.

Breaking it down by sector, the culture and arts department gets 3,854.5 billion won, up a massive 44.6% compared to this year, while the content sector receives 1,771.9 billion won, a 9.5% bump. Meanwhile, tourism gets 1,758.5 billion won with an 18.8% increase, and sports lands 1,833.3 billion won, marking a 7.9% rise.

Through this 2027 budget plan, the Ministry plans to heavily invest in solidifying the foundations of a cultural powerhouse by strengthening safety nets for artists and investing in fundamental arts. They are also eyeing youth cultural enjoyment, expanded work experience in the cultural sector, accelerating the K-culture dash, prepping for an era of 30 million inbound tourists through a radical regional tourism transformation, and fostering a safe sports environment for everyone to enjoy in their daily lives.

As for gaming, a brand new 'Global Frontier Game' production support fund of 6.0 billion won is being established to nurture blockbuster titles. Following that, the discovery and cultivation of indie games will scale up through a phased competitive contest, jumping from 130 to 200 titles, while office space support for small and medium-sized game developers expands from 50 to 70 companies. An automated system will also be newly built to swiftly block illegal private servers that pinch intellectual property from developers.

Policy financing for the content sector is being reshuffled towards large-scale strategic investments centered on blockbuster IPs and overseas expansion. The strategic content fund, which ignores corporate size and genre limitations, is doubling from 650 billion won to 1,300 billion won, while the global league fund that lures overseas investment is swelling more than threefold, going from 600 billion won to a whopping 200 billion won.

Financing support is also on the way for companies lacking collateral power. Contributions to the cultural industry guarantee—which supplies completion guarantees, specialized guarantees, and export guarantees—are expanding, and the secondary subsidisation scale, where the government covers 2.5 percentage points of the loan interest paid by companies, is doubling. To cope with soaring production costs and high interest rates, a brand-new low-interest loan support program tailored specifically for content is being launched.

Investments into the K-content fund are climbing from 430 billion won to 603 billion won, the cultural industry guarantee account contribution moves from 33.8 billion won to 43.8 billion won, and content corporate secondary subsidisation ticks up from 5 billion won to 10 billion won. The pilot loan support program for content companies stands at 10 billion won.

Research and development to underpin the growth of the K-culture industry is also receiving a record-breaking investment. The Ministry's R&D budget proposal for 2027 hits 1,774 billion won, marking a 17.1% increase from this year's 1,515 billion won.