One of the government's "creative economy" initiatives is encouraging young people in Korea to make something out of nothing by setting up their own businesses.
To help them turn ideas into viable business models, the government has been running start-up programs throughout the country.
Oh Soo-young with the details.
It's been said that every generation needs a revolution.


"Young people are the future of Korea. It is a crucial task to invigorate our economy with their creativity and their daring, revolutionary minds."


Throughout her term in office, President Park Geun-hye has pushed for the creation of policies and programs to support young people and their entrepreneurial aspirations.
One of these is the Youth Start-up Academy,... set up in 2011 to train aspiring entrepreneurs who are 39 and under.


"Students are provided with our one-stop assistance during all stages of creating a business,... from product development to marketing,... as well as grants of up to 70 percent of their business expenses."

They also get education, coaching and mentoring from industry experts along the way,... as well as the necessary tools and working space.
The academy has produced more than 12-hundred business leaders in the past five years, creating almost 5-thousand jobs through the companies they've started.

The government is also working with big players in the private sector to support youth start-ups.
One example is the E-commerce Dream Project, co-organized by Korea's biggest online portal Naver.
It helps participants set up online retail businesses on Naver's e-commerce platform,
with step-by-step tutorials on designing and managing their shops and marketing their products.
There were roughly 700 participants last year and almost half of them went on to launch their own businesses.


"We hope this will make them realize that it doesn't have to be a difficult process,... and developing good products based on original ideas can succeed without a huge amount of money."