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According to Yonhap News,

(SEOUL=Yonhap News) The government will promote a plan called the Picasso project by investing at least KRW 230 billion by 2019 so that the Korean games industry can take another leap forward.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) held a press conference on December 18 at the Government Complex Seoul and announced a mid- to long-term plan for the games industry and e-sports.

The MCST held more than 20 policy meetings with game developers and expert groups over the last year to establish the mid- to long-term plan and set three strategies: to create new territory for the future games industry, prepare a foundation for the games industry to move forward and improve the awareness of games, to rediscover their value.

The Picasso project suggests seven directions to achieve these three strategies: Person, Innovation, Culture, Accompany, Start-up, Strategy and Overseas.

The goal of the MCST is to increase the number of game companies with annual sales of KRW 500 billion or more from three to ten companies and annual sales of KRW 100 billion or more from six to ten.

The Ministry plans to grow the game market by 5 percent annually so that it can be worth KRW 13 trillion in 2019, compared to KRW 10 trillion in 2015. It will also increase exports from USD 2.8 billion in 2015 to USD 4 billion in 2019 through annual growth of 10 percent.

Considering that the most urgent task is to create new territory for the future game industry, the Ministry will increase research and development (R&D) projects to build a game industry ecosystem for the platforms of over-the-top (OTT) services and smart TVs.

They will also expand support for user experience (UX) R&D and artificial intelligence (AI) games.

The MCST will invest a total of KRW 230 billion (KRW 180 billion of the budget and KRW 50 billion of the fund of funds) to support the future game industry.

The Ministry will strive to improve the system, including game classification, to prepare a foundation for the games industry. The goal is to form a task force team to draw up a final plan in the first half of next year.

"Game classification will be improved in accordance with changes in the distribution of the games. The policy direction is to increase the autonomy of the private sector and hold them responsible in the future," said an MCST official.

The mid- to long-term e-sports plan is focused on the creation of an ecosystem for sustainable growth. The MCST rolled out three strategies: to establish the e-sports industry, expand e-sports culture and enhance e-sports global leadership.

For building infrastructure, the Ministry will establish an e-sports stadium in Sangam-dong in Seoul and build more facilities in which each region can hold games.

The Ministry will promote hands-on activity programs and g-learning (education by functional games) by connecting e-sports and a free semester system for middle school students. They will also strive to make the International e-Sports Federation a member of the Sports Accord, an international sports federation, so that e-sports will be recognized as official global sports.

"The Korean game industry is the foundation of a creative economy and economic innovation, which is the aim of the government. For the Picasso project, we will do our utmost to establish an environment where local companies can create good games," said Yoon Tae-yong, deputy minister of the Cultural Content Industry Office, MCST.

gorious@yna.co.kr

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