Hangzhou's cultural and creative industries prosper in 2018

The cultural and creative industry of Hangzhou, Zhejiang province has grown from an emerging "fledgling" industry to a new engine for its economic development, according to statistics from the Hangzhou Municipal Statistics Bureau.

In 2018, the city's cultural and creative industries realized an added value of 334.7 billion yuan ($49.96 billion), a year-on-year increase of 11.6 percent and 24.8 percent of the city's GDP.

A total of eight areas were highlighted last year, including flourishing emerging industries, innovative development of local enterprises, cultural exhibitions, talent cultivation and integration of cultural and financial industries.

In June 2018, the local government unveiled a blueprint for the Zhijiang Cultural Industry Belt, pledging to develop four industries covering cartoon and video games, art creation, filmmaking and digital culture. To date, a total of 55 key projects are underway.

In late September, Hangzhou issued a guideline on developing cultural and creative industries, heralding a new chapter in the growth of the city's cultural and creative industries and serving notice of Hangzhou's ambition of staying at the cutting edge.

The emerging digital creative industries, represented by the digital content industry, also witnessed solid growth with annual added value of 209.8 billion yuan, up 15.8 percent year on year and accounting for 63 percent of the city's cultural and creative industries.

The 14th China International Cartoon and Animation Festival, which culminated with rewarding results in Hangzhou in 2018, drew a total of 2,641 companies from 85 countries and regions and concluded cooperation agreements worth 13.83 billion yuan.

Another cultural feast, the 12th Hangzhou Cultural & Creative Industry Expo, recorded an increased trade volume at 15.95 billion yuan, quadrupling that of the previous year.

By the end of 2018, Hangzhou had over 2,000 cultural and creative enterprises, generating 836.9 billion yuan in business revenue, up 20.3 percent year on year.

In the next five years, the city will strive to build it into an international center for cultural and creative industries by focusing on content production, platform construction, cultural finance and talent cultivation.