China's top official in charge of ideological and cultural development Li Changchun has urged state-owned cultural companies to accelerate restructuring and become pillar players in the cultural market.

Li, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made the remarks during a five-day tour in east China's Jiangsu Province from May 8 to May 12.

He encouraged major state-owned cultural companies to become strategic investors in the country's booming entertainment industry.

According to a reform plan on the cultural industry, most of the cultural companies in China will no longer have access to government funding, and but to rely on their own performances for survival and development.

"Such a practice has fully proved that the central authorities' policy on cultural restructuring has met the demands of the times," Li said at a workshop on the reform.

Li's tour covered Nantong, Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou, Yangzhou and Nanjing cities, where he visited local companies, villages, communities and cultural institutions, to study the development of public cultural facilities like libraries and museums.

In Nanjing, the provincial capital, Li paid a visit to the Memorial Hall of the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders, where he placed a wreath in tribute to the Massacre victims.

(Xinhua News Agency May 13, 2009)