China's Ministry of Culture is briefing the media on the cultural reforms put in place in 2013 and the primary focus of work in 2014. China has been stepping up efforts in promoting innovation, and improving cultural services to boost its cultural influence.
The general offices of both the Communist Party of China central Committee and the state Council have issued an outline on cultural reforms that will take place during the 12th Five-Year Plan from 2011 to 2015. The outline specifies the guiding principles, major goals and key aspects of the plan, as well as policy supports.
The country is to undertake a variety of major projects in emerging sectors. These include digital publication and mobile multimedia. The government will give more support to medium and small sized cultural enterprises and enterprises that own intellectual property rights.
Independent innovation will be promoted, and key technologies with proprietary IPR will be developed. Public cultural services, including museums, galleries, and libraries, will be enhanced and opened to the public for free. Members of minority groups, handicapped people and other special groups will also enjoy more culture services.
The outline also calls for a narrowing of the cultural development gap between urban and rural areas by improving cultural services in isolated regions, including central and west China.
A village cinema scheme sets a goal of 50,000 film screens to be allocated to or built in rural areas. This will allow authorities to set up a monthly screening of at least one film for every village in the country by 2015. Another goal is to make television and radio networks accessible to 99 percent of the country's population.
Migrant workers should be included in urban cultural service systems. Companies and communities will be encouraged to organize non-profit cultural activities for them.
