China's cosmopolitan hub is moving towards building a robust culture industry, Shanghai officials announced Monday.

"The development of Shanghai's culture industry sped up in 2004 with an increasing proportion of the city's gross domestic product (GDP)," said Zhang Zhe, deputy director of the Shanghai Culture, Radio, Film and Television Administration, at the municipal government's regular briefing yesterday.

Last year the sector yielded an output of 156.4 billion yuan (US$18.9 billion), up 15.3 percent on the previous year, and accounting for 7.9 percent of the city's GDP growth, according to the Shanghai Statistics Bureau (SSB).

Cultural services, such as television, film and entertainment, grew 17.4 percent year-on-year in 2004, a clear edge above the average 12.9-per-cent growth in the city's service sector.

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Advertising, conference and exhibition created 8.58 billion yuan (US$1 billion) added value last year, making up 27.2 percent in the growth of Shanghai's cultural services.

In particular, Internet-based services grew the fastest, with a yearly growth of 28.7 percent last year.

"Internet-based cultural services have become an emerging medium of culture," said Liu Weizhong, deputy director of SSB.

The culture industry has boomed in recent years nationwide. And last November the Ministry of Culture issued a directive to encourage private and foreign investment in the sector's businesses.

The municipal government is drafting guidelines on investment in the culture industry for the next five years, which will be released at the end of the year.

Shanghai boasts the best culture facilities in the country. It now has 20,500 kilometers of radio and TV cables serving 3.98 million customers. Growth in the digital TV and mobile TV programmes sector is also soaring.

Shanghai's cinema box offices raked in 240 million yuan (US$29 million) last year, the highest in the country.

There are nearly 60 million books and publications in Shanghai's public libraries, not including the excellent libraries in the city's dozens of universities and academies.

Care is also being taken to maintain and preserve some of old Shanghai, and an area of some 22,000-square-metres fell under protection in 2004 alone.

Museum

The city now has 90 museums and memorials, including nine industrial museums and a privately run one.

"Shanghai's museums have been helped enormously in recent years as the city accelerated its construction of an international metropolis," said Chen Xiejun, deputy director of the Shanghai Cultural Relics Administration Committee.

(China Daily July 13, 2005)