Korea and Britain have agreed to bolster cultural ties to support the creative economy by holding a joint cultural forum, researching cultural infrastructure and reinforcing support for relevant industries, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said Thursday.

Cooperation between the two countries is expected to boost mutual understanding and expand market opportunities, the government said. 

According to the memorandum of understanding signed by the Korean Culture Minister Yoo Jin-ryong and British Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport and Minister for Women and Equalities Maria Miller on Wednesday at the Cineworld Haymarket in London, the two sides will hold a Creative Economy Industry Forum starting next year in London, inviting ranking officials, businessmen and scholars.

The two countries will also support exchanges between businessmen for the development of creative economy industries. TV, films, music, fashion, computer games performing arts, visual arts as well as literature will be the main focus of the exchanges. The two parties will seek personnel exchanges and joint production, starting with the Korean Film Festival in London and London Book Festival 2014, where Korea will be the Market Focus Country.

“We are hoping that the MOU will help Korea’s creative industry expand on a global scale through collaboration and friendship with the U.K., which has already established the world’s best creative industry infrastructure,” Yoo said at the signing event.

Britain in 1998 adopted nurturing of the creative industry as the national agenda and put forth “Creative Britain” as a slogan. Since then, the creative industry there has become a main driver for job creation, growth, exports and cultural diversity by integrating with construction, manufacturing, media and other industries on top of the traditional and conventional cultural industry.

By Bae Ji-sook (baejisook@heraldcorp.com)