President Park Geun-hye urged entrepreneurs from all walks of life Thursday to develop their creative ideas into money-making businesses, saying the government will do all it can to provide them with the necessary support.
   
Park made the remarks during the opening ceremony of Creative Korea 2014, a government-led fair aimed at promoting entrepreneurship across different industries, including science and technology, IT, culture and agriculture.
  
The fair was inaugurated last year as part of the Park administration's efforts to build a "creative economy" driven by new and innovative businesses.
   
"There are some who say that the (concept of a) creative economy is vague, or that it's going in the wrong direction," Park said during the fair held at the Coex exhibition center in southern Seoul. "However, that's the story of people who haven't opened and entered the door of the creative economy. One must not be afraid and knock on that door."
   
Citing growing uncertainties at home and abroad, such as weak domestic demand, the rise of the Chinese manufacturing sector and the increasingly weakening Japanese yen, Park said the new growth engine for the country's economy lies in new ideas and technologies.
  
Government policies and the efforts of entrepreneurs have begun to produce tangible results leading to a creative economy, with a record 70,000 new corporations registered in the first 10 months of this year, she said.
   
The government's creative economy policies have won international acclaim, with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the International Monetary Fund selecting South Korea's three-year economic innovation plan as the best growth strategy among those of the Group of 20 advanced and emerging economies, she added.
  
"The government will continue to provide all the support it can to ensure that the flame of the creative economy spreads across the entire nation and the success stories of venture firms continue to be born," Park said. (Yonhap)