The first international cultural industry fair will take place in Shenzhen City of Guangdong Province, south China, during Nov. 18-22, Shenzhen Mayor Li Hongzhong said in Beijing Wednesday.

Over 800 Chinese and overseas cultural companies, including big-name Disney, have applied to attend the fair, and the venue has been fixed at the Shenzhen High-Tech Fair Hall, said Li who is in the national capital to promote the fair.

The fair, which will be a biennial event, will be jointly held by the Industrial Division of the Chinese Ministry of Culture, the Cultural Administration of Guangdong Province, the Guangdong Provincial Radio, Film and TV Administration, the Guangdong Provincial Bureau for Press and Publication and the Shenzhen City Government.

In the plan to develop the cultural industry during the country's tenth five-year-plan period (2001-2005), China is hoping to achieve an annual growth rate of over 20 percent in the added value of cultural undertakings.

The country expects its cultural industry will contribute 2 percent to its gross domestic product (GDP) by the end of the tenth five-year-plan period.

Shenzhen, a boomtown facing Hong Kong across a river, is one of China's five special economic zones and is well-known for its economic success in the past two decades.

Nowadays, the cultural industry has become a major economic pillar of the city, with a 4.73-percent contribution to the city GDP last year, said Li.
 
(China Daily May 13, 2004)