China unveils policy to boost creative industry

China's State Council, the Cabinet, on Friday released plans aimed at promoting the integration of the creative and design service industries with the real economy. The proposals will help foster a new growth area for the country's economy and strengthen its cultural soft power, according to the document. China will integrate creative and design service industries with other traditional sectors, including equipment manufacturing, consumer goods manufacturing, construction, information, tourism, agricultural and sport industries, it said. Creativity and new design can add cultural significance to traditional manufacturing and speed up industrial upgrading, said Qi Shuyu, a scholar with the State Administrative College. "China has been widely acknowledged as the 'world factory' for churning out low-end products during the past decades," Qi said. "As long as it puts more cultural added value or technological content, then can China rise to become a manufacturing power." The proposals lay out specific measures to boost integration. Authorities will tighten intellectual property protection to promote creativity. Financial support or preferential tax policies will be provided for small and micro enterprises that feature cultural creativity or designservice, said the document. Chinese President Xi Jinping vowed to reform the cultural system and to build a solid foundation for the nation's cultural soft power, while addressing members of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee earlier this year. "The integration of the creative and design service sectors with other relative traditional trades will serve as an effective method to expand the development of the cultural industry," said Qi.