A forum on the development of China's art industry and an exhibition of Chinese and foreign art galleries will be held here in November, sources with the Chinese Ministry of Culture said Saturday.

The forum, the fifth of the annual event since 2000, will be held on Nov. 6 and 7, while the exhibition is slated for Nov. 5 and 9.

Both events are sponsored by the Department for Cultural Market of the Ministry of Culture and organized by the ministry's Center for Cultural Market Development and the Shanghai Culture Development Foundation.

The forum will focus on the establishment of a credit system in China's market for art craft and promote a number of galleries with good reputation. It also seeks to forge a regular cooperative mechanism between Chinese art galleries and international art expositions and galleries, the sources said.

Other topics of the forum include the role of art agents, the status quo and future of China's art galleries and what sorts of policies are needed to advance the prosperity of the gallery business.

China is far behind some foreign countries in the development of art galleries, but is considered to have great potential in this sector.

As the living standards of the Chinese people rise fast, investment in art works is growing rapidly, said Chen Xingbao, an executive of the Center for Cultural Market Development.