China's cultural products at a faster pace to go global
A visitor shops at a souvenir store in the Sanxingdui Museum in Guanghan, southwest China's Sichuan Province, May 16, 2022.(Xinhua/Wang Xi)
China's cultural products are reaching consumers around the globe at a faster speed, and the country's foreign cultural trade exceeded 200 billion U.S. dollars for the first time in 2021, registering a robust year-on-year growth of 38.7 percent.
Publications, TV dramas, games, cartoons and various design services, advertising services and copyright licenses from China are increasingly favored by businesses and residents from all over the world.
-- Export of cultural products ranks in the forefront worldwide
Cultural trade refers to the import and export of international cultural products and services, involving trade in goods, trade in services and intellectual property rights, and is an important part of international trade, introduced Li Jiashan, executive vice president of the China Institute for Service Trade.
With the rapid development of China's foreign cultural trade, China's export of cultural products has been in the forefront of the world for many years, forming a number of cultural enterprises, products and brands with international influence, added Li.
Data from the Ministry of Commerce showed that in 2021, China's import and export of cultural products registered 155.81 billion U.S. dollars, up 43.4 percent, and that of cultural services 44.22 billion U.S. dollars, up 24.3 percent. Besides, Chinese cultural enterprises have seen rapid growth in the export of films and TV dramas, online literature, and creative products among others.
The United States, Britain, Germany, France, the Netherlands and Japan are among the top export markets of China's cultural products, while Germany, France, the United States and Japan among others are China's main import markets of such products.
It is worth mentioning that in recent years, the cultural trade between China and the Belt and Road countries and regions has been expanding, especially the import and export of publications, arts and crafts, collectibles and cultural articles. The scale and structure of China's foreign cultural trade have been steadily increasing, driving the upgrading of cultural industries and the continuous optimization of the foreign trade structure.
-- Digital cultural trade takes the lead in "going global"
Domestic games are selling well in overseas markets, particularly those featuring classic "Chinese style". Online games and e-sports products are becoming the vanguards leading the export of Chinese cultural products.
According to a report released by the games-related business arm of the China Audio-video and Digital Publishing Association (CADPA), the actual sales revenue of China's self-developed games in overseas markets reached 8.989 billion U.S. dollars in the first half of this year, up 6.16 percent year on year.
The popularity of online games overseas is a miniature of China's flourishing digital cultural trade. In addition to traditional cultural products such as publications and films, Chinese cultural enterprises are also making layouts in digital culture.
China's cultural products boast certain global competitiveness in the field of digital culture, such as online games, and mobile phone animation standards and digital art display standards led by China have also been established as international standards, introduced Li Jiashan, "China's culture industry is developing rapidly with the support of digital technology, and the value chain of digital creative industries continues to expand, promoting high-quality development of foreign cultural trade."
According to Li, cultural trade, especially trade in cultural services, has a natural digital gene and has gradually become a new driving force for the growth of the global cultural economy.
It is introduced that China has clarified a series of measures to support the development of digital cultural trade, including developing new forms of business such as digital art, cloud exhibition and immersive experience, actively cultivating competitive advantages in the export of online literature, digital publishing, online broadcasting and e-sports, and encouraging enterprises to provide services such as printing, translation, dubbing, editing, post-production and other services for films, animations and games produced abroad.
-- More favorable policies for cultural trade enterprises are on the way
To further promote the development of culture trade, China will roll out more targeted measures for cultural trade enterprises.
In terms of improving the investment mechanism, related fiscal funding policies will support the construction of national cultural export bases and the development of overseas markets by enterprises, the expansion of cultural services export, as well as the cultivation of key enterprises and cultural brands. The guiding funds for innovative development of trade in services will also provide financing support for qualified cultural trade enterprises.
As for innovative financial services, while encouraging financial institutions to innovate financial products and services, support will also be given to qualified cultural trade enterprises to go public for financing, and raise funds by issuing corporate bonds, non-financial corporate debt financing instruments, etc.
The duty-free or zero-tax rate policies for the export of cultural services will support qualified enterprises to participate in the identification of technologically advanced service enterprises and enjoy relevant preferential corporate income tax policies. Related authorities will also back cultural trade enterprises in carrying out cross-border RMB settlement business, and support banks in providing better cross-border settlement services for cultural trade enterprises.
