As a platform for transactions for the cultural industry, the First International Cultural Industry Fair (ICIF) saw contract signing ceremonies for 17 investment projects Thursday, the first day.

Totaling about 1 billion yuan (US$121 million), the investment projects were for cultural facilities, networking, tourism, exhibitions, and cultural and historical relics protection.

They are from 13 cities in Guangdong Province, including Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan, Shaoguan, Meizhou, Huizhou, Zhongshan and Zhanjiang.

Lin Guanhao, chairman of the Shenzhen-based Blue Coast Co. Ltd., signed an agreement worth 700 million yuan with Shao Zhuosheng, director of the Shenzhen Branch of China Merchant Bank, to prepare a TV and film production base in Yantian District.

Both parties declined to disclose details of the project.

"This is just the beginning for us to organize signing ceremonies for the province's cultural industry at the ICIF," said Jiang Haiyan, deputy secretary general of Guangdong Provincial Government.

"With the ICIF running biennially, we are going to organize regular signing ceremonies for major investment projects that will help us to realize the goal of building Guangdong into a big cultural province," Jiang said.

Statistics provided by the provincial statistics bureau show that the cultural industry in Guangdong totaled about 95.4 billion yuan, accounting for 7 percent of the province's gross domestic product last year.

By the end of last year, there was a total of 20,702 cultural enterprises and organizations in the province employing about 182,700 people.

In October last year, the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the CPC and the Guangdong Provincial Government announced their decision to build Guangdong into a big cultural province.

 
Editor: Catherine