China's capital believes the creative industry will become a new locomotive of the municipal economy in the 2006-2010 period, sources with the local statistics bureau said on Thursday.

Beijing's per-capita GDP exceeded US$5,000 last year, which has laid a foundation for the development of the creative industry, the sources added.

Economic indicators show the creative industry is gathering strength in Beijing.

Last year the industry realized 70 billion yuan (US$9 billion) in value-added output, or 10.2 percent of the city's total. It garnered 280 billion yuan (US$36 billion) in revenue, a growth of 13.2 percent on the previous year, and its gross assets amounted to 514 billion yuan (US$66 billion), up 10.9 percent.

The creative industry consists of four segments, the software, network and computer service sector, the press sector, the radio, TV and film sector, and the design sector.

By the end of 2005, Beijing had more than 350,000 registered domains, 18.6 percent of the nation's total, published more than 100,000 types of book, 49 percent of the nation's total, and released 255 different types of newspaper, 13 percent of the total.

(Xinhua News Agency December 15, 2006)