Beijing launched its incubator of creative industries on Friday
and pledged to invest heavily into the emerging sector of the
economy.
Its municipal government expects creative industries to
contribute up to 12 percent of the capital's GDP by the end of the
2010, said Chen Dong, deputy director of the municipal government's
creative industry development leading group.
Beijing's definition of creative industries encompasses arts,
advertisements, leisure, publishing, sports, television and radio,
said Chen, who is also deputy director of the publicity department
of the Beijing Municipal Communist Party Committee.
The government has been spending billions of yuan for their
development since 2005, and Chen vowed that it would "strengthen
the support on an even greater scale".
"The capital will be the heart of Chinese arts, its publishing
center and sports hub. It will be the core of its antique dealings,
too," he said.
At the launching ceremony of the incubator, called
"International Creative Industries Alliance", he said initially the
incubator will work as a platform for sharing information and
investment chaneling for creative institutions such as design firms
and digital arts studios. It will also serve their potential
clients and investors, as well as all the talents in the
sector.
The incubator was initiated by nine organizations across the
world, including Beijing Gehua Cultural and Creative Industries
Center, Hong Kong Design Center and the US Corporate Design
Foundation.
It involved more than 80 creative organizations from over 20
countries, such as the London School of Economics and Political
Science, Royal Australian Institute of Architects, Hong Kong Film
Development Committee and the Royal Danish Academy of Fine
Arts.
(China Daily November 10, 2007)
