The Korea IT Times reports that the Korean government is investing 80 billion won ($63.52 million U.S. dollars) into the nationwide development and implementation of serious game applications. The investment will fund the development of general educational games, military simulations, and medical training titles. The Korean government expressed hopes that its domestic serious games market would grow to 500 billion won by 2012. "The functional game market is at an early stage, but the market is an emerging blue ocean," said Yu In-chon, minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism. "The government is going to give support to prompt private investment in that field." The government funding was initially suggested by the Global Serious Game Forum, a discussion group established by the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in July of last year.