The cultural purchasing power of Chinese citizens has been in fast development during the past five years. The consumption growth of cultural products has exceeded 16 percentage points over that of material products and the cultural sector has become a new growth sector in China, reports the overseas edition of People's Daily on Tuesday in Beijing.

The total output value of cultural industries reached 1,200 billion yuan in 2004. They included publishing, press media, film, broadcasting, TV, audio-video, printing, advertising, gaming, tourism, performing, network and information dissemination sectors, according to statistics released by departments concerned. Plus related services, the total value of production reached more than 2,000 billion yuan. Experts estimate that the figure will come up to 4,000 billion yuan in the coming five years.

However, there exists a great gap between China and countries in Europe and Americas. The cultural industries accounted for 21 per cent of the gross domestic product in the United States in 2004 and made up 18.5 per cent in Japan. By comparison, the proportion was still low in China.

By People's Daily Online