Expo highlights China's growing cultural market

Nearly 120 billion yuan ($19.7 billion) of deals were signed at the China Beijing International Cultural and Creative Industry Expo.

Deals signed during the five-day expo, which ended on Sunday in Beijing, covered trading of cultural products, construction of industrial zones and project investments, according to the event's website.

China's cultural market is growing rapidly, according to a statement on the expo's website on Sunday.

The expo, jointly hosted by the Ministry of Culture, General Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, and the Beijing government, was the eighth since it was first held in 2006.

The expo plays an important role in developing China's cultural and creative industries, according to the statement.

The expo has become a platform of international exchange and cooperation for China's cultural and creative industries, it said.

For example, many domestic media institutions signed cooperation agreements with British media during the expo, to recommend Chinese movies and TV programs to overseas audiences.

More than 1.2 million people in 26 countries participated in the expo this year.

Beijing led the country in terms of the strength of the cultural industry, followed by Guangdong and Shanghai, according to the latest China Cultural Industry Index released on Saturday.

The index was launched by the Cultural Industries Institute of Renmin University of China.

The development of the country's cultural industry was generally steady, the report said.

Meanwhile, China is still facing tough challenges in the development of its cultural industry, such as a lack of brands with international influence and a shortage of high-level creative talent, Liu Yuzhu, an official from the Ministry of Culture, said on Saturday.

Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, Guangdong and Jiangsu were the top five Chinese places in terms of cultural consumption, according to a survey by Cultural Industries Institute of Renmin University of China released on Saturday.

The survey said the average consumption level in the culture sector remained low in China, and nearly half of respondents said their annual cultural consumption was less than 2,000 yuan.

Traditional cultural products such as newspapers, magazines, TV programs, and books, are still the preference of Chinese, but new products, including games and films, have witnessed growing consumption, the survey said.