Training program to boost China's creative industries

China has started a national training program aimed at developing China's creative industries by cultivating talents and helping them start businesses. Authorities behind the program, initiated on Sunday by the China Creative Industry Alliance (CCIA), will scout the country for creative talents and offer them professional training in a step toward improving the country's creative industries, including industrial design, film, TV, advertising, fashion, animation, game development and other fields. "Anyone with creative ideas in these areas is welcome, particularly students on campus who want to make it in these industries," said Lu Jun, executive director of the CCIA. The agency, established in November 2011 with government support, seeks to beef up the development of creative industries in China. Lu said that the agency will recruit experts from a variety of areas to give lectures to the talent pool. The agency will also work in partnership with an investment company to raise funds that will help the program participants build their own businesses, he added. Yang Zhiyong, Secretary General of the CCIA, said the program is a sign of China's determination to transform its label from "made in China" to "created in China." He added that this move is in line with a circular issued by the State Council in February to boost China's cultural and creative industries. He said that creative people are greatly needed to reach the goal, but such talents are thin on the ground at the moment. "The dearth of talents has become a stumbling block for creative industries in China, which renders the program quite necessary," Yang told Xinhua. The program will shore up the development of the country's creative sectors by cultivating talented creators, according to Gao Chao, a renowned nuclear physicist. "It could be a solution where societal efforts converge to bring the industries to the next level," he said.