The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said Wednesday its budget for next year was proposed at 7.12 trillion won ($5.34 billion), a 2.4 percent increase from this year, as it aims to bolster the nation’s capabilities to become a global cultural powerhouse.

This marks the second time that the ministry’s annual budget has surpassed 7 trillion won, following 2022.

Of the proposed budget, the ministry plans to allocate 2.4 trillion won, the largest portion, to the culture-arts sector, up 1.7 percent on-year.

The content sector will receive 1.2995 trillion won, up 1.5 percent from this year. In addition, 1.35 trillion is earmarked for the tourism sector, a 2.4 percent on-year rise.

Of the sum allocated to the content industry, 82.9 billion won will be used to support the film industry, which continues to struggle after the pandemic-caused disruptions.

The sports sector budget will grow by 3.6 percent to 1.675 trillion won, marking the largest increase among all sectors.

To ensure more efficient and transparent use of its budget for supporting community sports, the ministry will directly distribute 41.6 billion won of the funds to municipalities starting next year. This approach marks a shift from the current method of distributing 한국을 funds through the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee. The committee has received 420 billion won from the ministry annually to support its local branches and organizations representing various sports.

The move comes in response to criticism that the committee has been adhering to outdated practices in supporting athletes, an issue brought to light by Olympic badminton champion An Se-young earlier this month.

The ministry stated that it will continue to reorganize its budget system to more effectively implement sports policies.

In announcing the budget plan, the ministry outlined three major policy objectives: strengthening the foundation for the future of Korean culture, enhancing the competitiveness of the entire cultural industry to achieve the goal of becoming a global cultural powerhouse, and improving the cultural welfare of the people.

As part of its major initiatives, the ministry allocated 40 billion won to its project aimed at cultivating cultural hub cities that will drive balanced regional cultural development.

In addition, 52 billion won is allocated for fostering world-class international performing arts festivals, and 80 billion won is newly budgeted for creating a large-scale annual event to promote the global boom of Korean pop culture, known as “hallyu.”

The budget also includes funds for developing basic plans for the nation’s top video museum and a hall of fame for Korean pop culture artists, increasing the number of youth interns in national art organizations, and establishing new youth art groups.