Lee Soo Man has further explained his decision to debut a NCT Vietnam team.

Last year at the Maekyung Vietnam Forum, the executive producer announced his plan to launch NCT Vietnam. He talked more about it at the Korea-Vietnam Business Cooperation Seminar that occurred on September 11.

Lee Soo Man explained, “When I entered the foreign markets in 1997, I declared ‘Culture First, Economy Next.’ I thought that if a good culture is ahead and it is loved by neighboring countries and spread around the world, it will lead to economic power. Indeed, K-pop is creating greater added value and economic growth effects through its impact on the primary and secondary industries and convergence with similar industries. The success of Korea’s cultural content industry has led to rapid growth of various Korean industries worldwide and the shift to high added value, which describes the economic activity of one component as the ‘spillover effect.'”

He once again mentioned his points on Vietnam, commenting, “Vietnam is a very young and dynamic country with 65 percent of its population under 35 years old. I see it as a positive point that there are many similarities with Korea’s lifestyle, sentiment, and Confucian culture, so Vietnam will be able to create world-class stars and cultural contents based on its population and cultural characteristics as Korea did.”

Lee Soo Man disclosed, “One of my first announcements in Hanoi last December was that SM will discover talent in Vietnam and create the NCT Vietnam team, which will become stars in Asia and the world. I wanted to not only discover local stars in Vietnam but also foster them as global stars to contribute to the development of the Vietnamese culture industry and the economy and to create an opportunity to influence the world.”

At the end of his speech, he added, “If many Asian countries including Korea, Vietnam, and others cooperate and prepare in advance, I believe that Asia will be able to lead their cultural industry through artificial intelligence and entertainment in the massive virtual world that is to come.”

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