1 December , 2011

Mr. Yang Jian, Director General of the Administration of
Radio, Film and Television of Guangdong Province,
to Dim Sum TV Reporter:
New Rural Cinemas to be Built with Government Fund

The press conference for the Guangdong Province Cultural Reform and Development Meeting was held in Guangzhou on December 1. The purpose of the press conference was to provide an update on the progress of the ongoing effort to build Guangdong into a strong cultural entity, as well as to unveil relevant new measures. Dim Sum TV reporter, Ms. Yan Chan, attended the press conference and participated in the question-and-answer session with Mr. Yang Jian, Director General of the Administration of Radio, Film and Television of Guangdong Province. During the press conference, representatives of eight media organizations were selected to present their questions to Mr. Yang. The question by Dim Sum TV’s reporter was: “China’s film industry is undergoing a period of rapid development. What new policies is Guangdong province implementing to promote the growth of its film industry?”

According to Mr. Yang Jian, Guangdong has introduced many policies, the latest of which is the setting up of a government fund for the construction of new cinemas in the province. Of the 250 movie theaters currently in the province, 42% are in Guangzhou and Shenzhen. If one accepts that, overall, 82.8% are located in the Pearl River Delta area, then the number of cinemas in the eastern and western flanks of the province plus the underdeveloped mountainous region in the north only make up a very small percentage. This is especially true of the rural areas below county level.

Statistics show that the total value of the cultural output of Guangdong province reached RMB25.33 billion in 2010. This represents a 13.6% increase over the previous year and a 5.6% share of the total provincial GDP, one of the best figures in the country. Between 2012 and 2015, the provincial government will allocate an additional RMB2.5 billion for 14 key initiatives, including the building up of a mass-level cultural public infrastructure, the nurturing of iconic southern Guangdong cultural figures, and the speeding up of the export of the province’s cultural product.

The provincial government will also be implementing a number of related new policies. In the pipeline are a new system for motivating cultural talents, measures for bolstering the support for government initiatives regarding creative industries, encouraging public donations to public and social enterprises, and institutionalizing new procedures for assessing and certifying professionals in emerging cultural industries.

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