The South Korean government has earmarked 5.8 billion won ($5 million) in its 2022 budget outline to sponsor exhibition tour and preservation of the cultural valuables and art collection of the late Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee donated by his family.

The government will spend the budget on researching and building database on Lee’s collection, and sponsoring exhibitions to the standards of his valuable contribution.

Lee’s cultural donation spanning 11,023 pieces includes 60 valuables designated as cultural properties by the state for national heritage protection (14 national treasures). They are projected to be worth near $3 billion.

The government will spend 3.3 billion won to cover expenses on researching, registering and improving management system for the art collection with a plan to complete the basic study by 2026.

Another 2.5 billion won will be spent on organizing special art exhibitions across the country for public viewing.

The government also revealed budget plan for other unusual projects, which include building a natural language based legal information search system using artificial intelligence technology. It estimates to spend 9.2 billion won on developing the search system until 2026, with 2.3 billion won already assigned for this year.

Another extraordinary spending would go to preventing voice phishing, a use of fraudulent phone calls to trick people into revealing personal information to steal money. The government already allocated 12.4 trillion from this year’s budget for the project and purchased radio detection devices, which catches signals for manipulating phone calls at local cell phone boosters.

By Chun Gyung-woon and Cho Jeehyun

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]