Cultural expo touts industry
By Liu Weifeng (China Daily)
Updated: 2004-08-07 00:48

The first Shenzhen International Cultural Industry Expo will be held in November.

Latest achievements in the sector will be on display during the event and experts from the fast-growing cultural industry will have an opportunity to exchange their experiences.

Encouraged by the frequent cultural exchanges home and abroad, and the promising increase in the business in China, the Shenzhen government, the Ministry of Culture and the Guangdong provincial cultural authority have decided to jointly organize the cultural event.

The Expo will be a bi-annual event held in Shenzhen in autumn, marking the second fixed-open national expo in the city, after the Hi-Tech Fair.

"It supplies a platform for the display and trade of cultural products, and for communicating and research in the industry", said Liu Ming, deputy-director of the organizing committee for the Expo.

The four-day event, starting November 18, is expected to attract big-name exhibitors from more than 800 companies and institutes from home and abroad, including Sony, Panasonic, CCTV, Poly Group, News Corp, Disney and Thomson.

Covering some 42,000 square metres, containing 1,500 standard booths, the fair is the first of this kind to categorize the digital TV industry, the audio and video facilities, media brand packaging and sales, international comic and animation programme and the traditional Chinese arts and cultural sectors.

The current development of the industry accounts for a very small proportion of China's gross domestic product (GDP). However, it makes up 20 per cent of GDP in the United States.

"The Expo is to promote the industry as a new economic focus in China," said Yu Weiliang, deputy secretary-general of Shenzhen municipal government.