The Ministry of Culture held a teleconference with representatives of government, financial institutions and major creative enterprises on April 14 to encourage financial support for China's emerging cultural industry.

The Ministry, along with the CPC Publicity Department, People's Bank of China, Ministry of Finance, State Administration of Radio Film and Television (SARFT), General Administration of Press and Publication, China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) and China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), were following up a March 19 instruction to the financial sector to provide financial support to the cultural industry.

China's cultural industry has seen continuous growth of 15 percent per year since 2004 and the financial crisis barely affected its momentum. But most creative enterprises, especially small and medium concerns, find it difficult to obtain credit.

The meeting committed both government and financial organizations to developing financial products suitable for cultural industry and increasing loans to creative enterprises. Credit will be made available to viable and profitable companies, to finance supply chains and promote mergers.

Vice Minister of Culture Ouyang Jian said the government is building a public service platform to boost investment and financial support in the cultural industry. A new column on www.cnci.gov.cn, the official website of cultural industry, will offer information on financial markets. Financial consulting services on loans, trust funds, securities and insurance will be made available to creative companies. A new database will contain details of investment projects.

The Ministry of Culture has established strategic partnership with The Export-Import Bank of China, Bank of China and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and has already financed projects to a value of more than 6 billion yuan (US$879 million). They include the dance show Tea, the cultural theme park Song City in Hangzhou, and the ice and snow theme park in Harbin.

Chief of the financial markets department of the Bank of China, Mu Huaipeng, said the bank will establish a new department to create products and services tailored to the needs o f the creative enterprises.

According to the vice director of the supervision department of CSRC, creative enterprises make up only one percent of Chinese listed companies. Huayi Brothers Media Corporation is the only creative company listed on GEM (the growth enterprise market) although some creative enterprises are applying to go public on the main board of the stock exchange.

The Chinese government published a Revitalizing the Cultural Industry plan in July last year, and asked the central government departments and local governments to take a multi-dimensional approach to developing the culture industry. Special funds have been established to support animation, movies, TV and publishing.