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Globalization of Korean food hits snag

By Ryu Chang-gi

The much-touted project for globalization of Korean food has failed to yield fruits as expected despite the whooping 80 billion won budget allocated, according to Rep. Kim Jae-won of the Saenuri Party, Thursday.

Initiated in 2009, by the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, its impact is now being seriously questioned. First lady Kim Yoon-ok led the Korean Food Foundation to showcase the image of Korea, with the goal of improving business opportunities for Korean restaurants overseas.

Kim asserted that the construction of the flagship Korean food restaurant New York's Manhattan, has failed to make progress. In addition, the foundation has been very sluggish all this while.

Despite the ministry's plan to invest 5 billion won ($4.5 million) in the Korean restaurant in New York, no local firm has taken part in the consortium. Kim made the remark during a parliamentary inspection of the ministry.

Kim said, "Even though 1 billion won was spent to establish the website of the Korean food globalization, it has failed to spread Korean food globally".

"This is a typical administrative waste of tax payers' money, involving spending huge sums without any corresponding effective outcome. So far, 4 billion won has been spent to conduct market research for Korean cuisine".

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