The South Korean government on Monday laid out a five-year plan to develop the national sports industry, saying that "it will try to capitalize on the country's advanced technologies to turn the industry into a growth engine for the future," according to Yoo Jee-ho of YONHAP. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said that "it will look to expand the size of its sports business" from the current 3.7T won ($3.5B) to up to 5.3T won ($5B) by '18, combining elements of advanced information technology and other scientific technologies with sports. Vice Minister of Culture, Sports & Tourism Kim Chong said that "the government's plan will also see the number of sports jobs increase from 230,000 this year to 270,000" by '18. Specifically, the official said that "the ministry will build an open platform for sports and health-related information, called the Sports Activity Index." The vice minister said that "the government also aims to build more interactive sports simulators to cover popular sports such as baseball and football." Kim added that as part of the plan, "the ministry will look to build YouTube channels to provide live feeds of amateur sports as well as major professional sports, all accessible on mobile devices" (YONHAP, 12/2).
