Alliance 'needed' for animation industry

The country should establish a national alliance for the booming animation and cartoon industry to make a big impression on the international market, a national legislator said.

Li Yang, vice-chairman of China Animation Group and an NPC deputy from Shanghai, suggested the alliance should forge closer ties with heavyweight international players such as Walt Disney Co and DreamWorks Animation LLC to leverage their international distribution channels and creative thinking.

"Many products can be further improved in terms of content and design. Currently we have very few products that qualify as special. Many are mediocre," he said.

Li believed the formation of the alliance will better guide the development of the largely unmanaged industry, which is a multi-billion yuan business in China.

The overall revenue of the industry is expected to garner 100 billion yuan ($16 billion) by the end of 2015. In contrast, sales reported by Walt Disney were $42.78 billion last year.

Experts said the gap between Chinese and foreign markets remains huge and the domestic development is not only constrained by lack of talented and creative people but also by the absence of a complete industrial chain.