President Lee Jae-myung began his full-scale schedule on the second day of his state visit to France on the 7th (local time) by attending the Lumière Summit, an international film and video summit.

President Lee will attend the Lumière Summit held in Saint-Paul-de-Vence in southern France alongside French President Emmanuel Macron as co-chairs.

The Lumière Summit is an event discussing the future of film and video, bringing together about 200 participants, including major executives from the film, broadcasting, video, and game industries, policy decision-makers, political leaders, and cultural and artistic figures from some 30 countries around the world.

President Lee is scheduled to present agendas to respond to environmental changes in the film and video industries through his opening speech, and proclaim the Global Film and Video Industry Investment Cooperation Initiative together with President Macron, Cheong Wa Dae Spokesperson Kang Yu-jung stated in a written briefing.

The initiative entails that South Korea and France will each invest 500 million euros (approximately 800 billion won) in the video industry over five years starting in 2027.

The plan is for South Korea and France to establish a leading model in which participating countries in the initiative preferentially support local content companies through independent funds and later expand into joint productions, and to scale this up to a global level encompassing both the government and the private sector.

Senior Spokesperson Kang explained, "This will serve as an opportunity to expand bold investments in the domestic film and video industry, breathe vitality into the creative ecosystem, and diversify the overseas expansion of K-content."

President Lee is then scheduled to hold a meeting with South Korean directors and actors invited to the Lumière Summit to encourage creators and listen to voices from the content production field.

Attendees at the meeting include directors Lee Chang-dong and Jung Ju-ri, actors Sul Kyung-gu, Jeon Do-yeon, and Kim Do-yeon, and Kim Min-young, Vice President of Content for Asia-Pacific at Netflix.

Following the meeting, President Lee, along with First Lady Kim Hye-kyung, will hold an official luncheon with participants of the Lumière Summit, including French President Macron and his spouse.

After the luncheon, he will preside over a film and video-related roundtable where figures from the South Korean and global content industries will explore cooperation measures.

Representatives from CJ ENM, Naver, Netflix, the Motion Picture Association (MPA), and Mediawan are expected to attend.

President Lee will then meet with representatives from major MPA-affiliated studios and platforms, including Netflix, Disney, Sony, and NBCUniversal, to discuss ways to strengthen South Korea-US video industry cooperation.

At this venue, President Lee plans to express gratitude for MPA member companies investing over 1 trillion won annually in K-content, promise full government support, and request continued investment.

Arriving in Nice, France, on the afternoon of the previous day, President Lee also immediately held a dinner with creators from five continents.

Following this, starting from the 8th, President Lee is scheduled to carry out a two-day state bilateral visit schedule in Paris and hold a summit meeting with President Macron.

(Photo: Yonhap News)