Li: Cultural industries to play bigger role

New services expected to become drivers in economic restructuring

The development of the cultural and creative industry is important for China's economic restructuring, according to a State Council meeting on Wednesday.

At the meeting, Premier Li Keqiang reiterated the importance of advancing the development of the cultural and creative industry as well as its integration with related industries.

New high-end service industries such as the cultural and creative industry, which is less reliant on natural resources, emits little pollution and has high added value, will become a major driving power of the country's economic restructuring, according to the meeting.

Detailed policies concerning the development of the cultural and creative industries and other related industries were mentioned at the meeting.

Areas to address include the protection of intellectual property rights, talent support programs, development of small and medium-sized cultural companies, introduction of private capital, eco-friendly products and financial services.

The newly released policies are undoubtedly good news to industry practitioners.

Wang Yang, product designer and owner of Kieferzapfzen Design, believes that this will signal a more sound development of the industry into which she embarked seven years ago. She said the cultural and creative industry will play a key role as the country seeks a different mode of development.

"We have seen that the central government has attached more importance to the cultural and creative industry, which takes people with professional knowledge and expertise. Decades ago, the focus was on traditional industries, which depended more on resources. But now the signal is that the cultural and creative industry is of primary importance, even though its output is not as big," she said.

But Wang also pins a lot of hope on changes in the capital market. As there are few listed cultural and creative companies at present, she wishes to see more of them when the new policies are implemented.

Xu Ke, founder of Shanghai Hippo Animation Design, interpreted the message as "the clearest explanation of the importance of the cultural and creative industry". The biggest difference, as he sees it, is the introduction of private capital.

"Actually, private capital entered the cultural and creative industry a long time ago, which is in accordance with the essence of the industry itself. But what is more important behind this message is that we will be able to see a better investment environment in the near future. There will be systematic changes, as well as changes in the publicity and distribution channels, to secure a sound investment environment for private capital," he said.

"Until now, developing the cultural and creative industry solely on government investment was far from enough. Private capital ensures higher efficiency and thus faster development of the industry. What we are calling for now is the implementation of these policies as soon as possible," he added.

The output of China's cultural and creative industry exceeded 4 trillion yuan ($661 billion) in 2012, according to the Institute of Culture Industries of Peking University.

Yang Yao contributed to this story.

shijing@chinadaily.com.cn