President Park Geun-hye said Wednesday that she will help build an ecosystem for the cultural content industry to boost South Korea's exports of cultural content.

South Korea views the culture industry as one of its future growth engines amid growing popularity of its media content, including soap operas and music, in China, Japan and other Asian countries in recent years.

Park described the cultural content industry as alchemy of the 21st century, saying the industry generates added value as it influences other industries, including tourism, health and education.

According to the Bank of Korea, earnings from cultural content and leisure services in the first 10 months of 2014 stood at US$767.2 million, compared with the all-time high figure of $730.9 million in the full year of 2013.

"The fusion of culture and industry will create a new growth engine for the future" and help make South Korea a cultural powerhouse, Park said in a ceremony designed to establish an ecosystem for the cultural content industry.

CJ Group, South Korea's entertainment conglomerate, and Gyeonggi Province plan to invest 1 trillion won (US$911 million) to set up a K-culture valley in Goyang, just north of Seoul, and use it as a hub of cultural content. (Yonhap)