Cultural and Creative Industries: New Engine for Economic Growth

Provide Opportunities to the World

The development of China’s CCI sector has resulted in a surge in manufacture and export of cultural and creative products. This has not only enriched global cultural markets, and boosted international economic growth, but also contributed to the diversity of world culture.

In March 2016, UNESCO published a report entitled “The Globalisation of Cultural Trade: A Shift in Consumption – International Flows of Cultural Goods and Services 2004-2013.” It revealed that in 2013 China topped the world by exporting cultural products worth more than US $60 billion, accounting for 28.2 percent of total world exports in this sector, about twice that – US $27.9 billion – of the second country, the U.S. In the same year, China imported cultural products worth US $5.84 billion, about 3.5 percent of total world imports. (See Figure 1)

The strong demand and potential for China’s cultural market constitute great opportunities for foreign companies. At present, China’s middle-income population is close to 300 million, a figure expected to double in a decade. People in the middle-income group are the main consumers of cultural and creative products due to their higher incomes and education levels. According to the China Cultural Consumption Index (2013), a report jointly released by the Ministry of Culture and Renmin University of China, the country’s potential cultural consumption that year reached RMB 4.7 trillion, while the actual level remained at RMB 1 trillion. Driven by strong demands and a series of policies, the cultural and creative industries are expected to become the new growth point in the context of the economic “new normal,” so bringing great opportunities for all cultural companies.