A 20 billion yuan Chinese cultural industries fund, backed by the mainland's top economic planning agency, will help boost so-called 'soft power' on the mainland, industry observers said.
Wu Zhong, deputy director of the party publicity department, said plans for the fund, announced in Shenzhen this month, had been approved by the National Development and Reform Commission.
The fund is another step in China's drive to expand its cultural resources and improve its image overseas, domestic media reported. In recent years, Beijing has focused on developing films, animation and television series, and also spreading knowledge of China's culture and language through nearly 300 Confucius Institutes that have been opened around the world.
'This significant move will boost cultural industries, improve financing mechanisms and accelerate the transformation of economic development modes,' Wu said.
The fund will seek six billion yuan in its first round of fund-raising, with 500 million yuan coming from the Ministry of Finance, and will invest in publishing, movies, animation, television, the arts and music.
The fund was announced at the China (Shenzhen) Cultural Industries Fair on May 17 after being among policies to boost the cultural industries set out in a report published in September. Zhang Xiaoming, deputy director of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Research Centre for Humanities, said it would subsidise companies producing products that represented and promoted Chinese culture.