A press conference on the inaugural Yangtze River Delta International Cultural Industries Expo was held today (November 28). Wang Yayuan, deputy director of the Publicity Department of the CPC Shanghai Committee, made an introduction about the preparatory work for the expo and Xu Ning, deputy director of the Publicity Department of the CPC Jiangsu Committee, Ge Xuebin, deputy director of the Publicity Department of the CPC Zhejiang Committee, Cao Longcan, deputy director of the Publicity Department of the CPC Anhui Committee, and Gu Chunting, deputy director of the Council for the Promotion of International Trade Shanghai, joined Wang to take questions from the media.

To better carry out the spirit of the 19th CPC National Congress and respond to remarks made by Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee on developing the Yangtze River Delta Region as a whole, which has been upgraded to a national strategy, the publicity departments of Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui have been making proactive efforts and come up with a joint statement to host the inaugural Yangtze River Delta International Cultural Industries Expo together, which is perfectly in line with the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and opening-up. Starting from 2018, the expo will be held jointly in the region and the first one will run in Shanghai from November 29 to December 2.

I Meaning and mission of the expo

China has witnessed rapid development of cultural industries expos of various types over the past few decades with a batch of them, both in the Yangtze River Delta and some other regions around the country, featuring unique characteristics. At present, many are entering a key stage of transforming and upgrading in a pursuit of major breakthroughs in operation model, brand awareness and consolidation of strengths. It is an anticipation shared by municipality and provinces in the region to host the Yangtze River Delta Cultural Industries Expo with a primary focus on serving the“Three Strategies.” The first is to serve the national strategy for cultural development, explore new models for the development of cultural industries, and seek experiences that can be duplicated and expanded to other parts of the country to facilitate overall development and reform of domestic cultural industries. The second is to serve the national strategy of integrated development in the Yangtze River Delta region, strengthen collaboration in the Yangtze River Delta city cluster, improve the joint cultural strength in the region and boost the economic and social development in the Yangtze River Delta region. The third is to serve the strategy of building the city cluster in the region into a world-class one, make new cultural achievement along with industrial upgrading and improvement in city’s core functions, and raise the strength in economic innovation, as well as industrial and cultural competitiveness.

The Yangtze River Delta International Cultural Industries Expo is held to implement the national strategies of integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta region and the building of a world-class city cluster, as well as to give a full play of the region’s important role in the country’s Belt and Road Initiative, and constructions of the Yangtze River economic belt and Grand Canal cultural belt. Setting its foothold in the Yangtze River Delta region, the expo aims to garner attention from both around the country and the world, display the overall image of cultural industries in the region, attract national and international cultural industries resources and build a cooperation and trading platform for players in the region and from other parts of the country and the world. Hopefully in three years, the expo will become a leading one of its kind in the Yangtze River Delta region and gain national popularity and global influence in three to five years.

II Information about the expo that is co-organized by three provinces and a municipality

The host of the Yangtze River Delta International Cultural Industries Expo is an achievement of common judgment and good expectation among Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui to push forward coordinated development of the cultural industries in the Yangtze River Delta region. Since the year’s beginning when we made the initiative and started preparation, the CPC publicity departments in related places were working closely and trying hard to overcome all the difficulties for a successful expo.

Looking back, high-ranking officials in the Jiangsu Province attached high importance to the event. They supervised the work plan in person and coordinated cultural resources across the province to guarantee good preparations. By formulating the Work Plan for the Jiangsu Delegation of the first Yangtze River Delta International Cultural Industries Expo, the province has a clear implementation plan that focuses on the reflection of new trends in the cultural industries and strengthens the idea of cities to present quality products and services provided by enterprises in Jiangsu.

Officials in Zhejiang Province also paid high attention. The provincial publicity leaders organized several meetings to study the preparation plan and coordinated to deal with key difficulties. With the establishment of a work group of Zhejiang for the expo, the province managed to involve provincial cultural bureau, news and broadcasting bureau, information and technology commission, commerce commission, sport bureau and tourism bureau to create a coordinated work mechanism that has clear responsibilities. It has helped to achieve united social and economic interest, and allow the best to top out for a quality presentation of cultural industries in Zhejiang Province.

Anhui Province is determined to having good implementation. The main publicity officials in the province held several targeted meetings for the expo and set up a special work group to optimize the plan. They also created a mechanism to recommend quality enterprises to participate, and well interacted with city-level publicity bureaus. A batch of strong cultural enterprises had an excellent presentation at the expo, showing the new driving forces for the cultural industries in Anhui.

Shanghai served as a leader to set up a platform. The city’s main publicity officials paid close attention to the preparations. Bearing in mind the requirement of “Quality, Internationalization, Interaction, Services, Features and Success”, the city’s publicity bureau worked closely with the three provinces and tried to win support from the central government for the establishment of a good platform to strengthen cooperation and exchange in the cultural industries of the Yangtze River Delta region. A group of strong and important cultural industries have made their presence at the expo.

III General information of the first Yangtze River Delta International Cultural Industries Expo

The first Yangtze River Delta International Cultural Industries Expo consists of three main parts, namely, exhibitions, forums, and activities jointly launched by four districts of Shanghai and cities from Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui. The expo aims to be of high quality, international, cutting-edge and rich.

1.Exhibitions. The first Yangtze River Delta International Cultural Industries Expo boasts of an exhibition area of 20,000 square meters, including the prelude hall and the industries exhibition area. The prelude hall will display a five-minute long film, called “the Significant Place where the River and Sea meet” on an immersive circular-screen. In this hall, by the combination of illustrations, graphics, multimedia and other ways, the competence and charm of the high-quality and integrated development of the first Yangtze River Delta is showcased from perspectives of the strategic geography, the historical development, the industrial strength and international cooperation. The industries exhibition area breaks the territorial limit with cultural enterprises from the three provinces and Shanghai mutually fused and commonly showed. The whole exhibition area is composed of five section, namely, “value chain”, “new momentum”, “new vision”, “cool zone” and “LOHAS”, accommodating outstanding cultural enterprises in fields such as radio, film, television, digital content, online video industry, animation, comic and game, creative design, artwork transaction, cultural equipment, acting, entertainment and so on. Among them, some are “top 30” Chinese cultural enterprises, listed cultural companies and leading cultural enterprises. Up to now, there are as much as 330 cultural exhibitors participating in the first cultural industries expo, and among them, 107 exhibitors are form Shanghai, 91 from Jiangsu, 58 from Zhejiang, 63 from Anhui and 11 from foreign nations. Meanwhile, central stage and symposium hall are specially arranged at the exhibition area, providing public space for on-site performance, launching new products, and business negotiation, satisfying enterprises’ various needs and enhancing the variety of the exhibition.

2. Forums. Forums are composed of one keynote forum and five thematic forums. The keynote forum will be held on November 29 in at the friendship hall of Shanghai Exhibition Center. The keynote forum is jointly held by publicity departments of party committee and Guangming Daily, focusing on the theme that “the innovative and combined development of cultural industries in the Yangtze River Delta”. The five thematic forums will be held during November 29 and the morning of November 30 in the Shanghai Exhibition Center. Respectively themes are “the canal culture” hosted by the publicity department of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee of the Communist Party, “ digital economy expands new spaces for cultural industries” hosted by the publicity department of the Zhejiang Provincial Committee of the Communist Party, “ Jiangnan culture and the development in the new era” hosted by the publicity department of the Shanghai Committee of the Communist Party and Guangming Daily and “the brand building of acting industry and city culture” and “promoting the high-quality development of cultural industry” hosted by the Shanghai Committee of the Communist Party.

3. The interaction and synergies between counties and districts

The synergies between district governments in Shanghai and county-level cities in Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Anhui provinces will fully showcase the interaction and integration between the city clusters in the Yangtze River Delta region.

It would fully leverage the positive role of Shanghai in promoting the cultural industry. On the one hand, it would create an atmosphere for the Yangtze Delta cultural expo by bringing additional highlights to the main event.

On the other hand, it would help build up a long-term working mechanism to link the cultural industries in the three provinces and one city to allow institutions and government bodies to complement each other, enhance each other's brand and city image, and share the results. It would eventually promote the integrated and unified development of cultural industry within the Yangtze River Delta region in a broader sense and at a deeper level.

Four theme events will be held between November 30 and December 2, hosted by four districts in Shanghai by joining hands with county-level cities in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui province.

The Yangtze River Delta Region Red Tourism Forum will be held on the morning of November 30 and will be hosted by the propaganda departments of the Communist Party of China's Committee in Shanghai’s Hongkou and Huangpu Districts along with Xuzhou City in Jiangsu Province, Jiaxing City, Quzhou City, Taizhou City in Zhejiang Province and Liuan City in Anhui Province.

The Yangtze River Delta Region Culture and Financial Collaboration Forum will be held in the afternoon of November 30, and will be hosted by the propaganda departments of the Communist Party of China's Committee in Shanghai's Xuhui District along with Nanjing city from Jiangsu Province, Hangzhou city from Zhejiang Province, Ningbo City, Shaoxing City and Bengbu City in Anhui Province.

The Yangtze River Delta Region Cultural Empowerment New Cultural Tourism Industry Development Forum will be held in the morning of December 1, which will be hosted by the propaganda departments of the Communist Party of China's Committee in Shanghai's Minhang District, along with Lianyungang City in Jiangsu Province, Changzhou City, Huzhou City in Zhejiang Province, Lishui City and Wenzhou City.

The Yangtze River Delta Region Esports Industry Development Forum will held in the morning of December 1, which will be hosted by the propaganda departments of the Communist Party of China's Committee in Shanghai's Yangpu District, along with Nanjing City from Jiangsu Province and Hangzhou City from Zhejiang Province.

The first Yangtze River Delta International Cultural Industries Expo which displays the region’s cultural industrial achievements as a whole for the first time, breaks geographic boundaries, optimizes cultural resources and builds a broader market for cultural exchange and trading.

The Yangtze River Delta International Cultural Industries Expo is a joint effort for Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces to promote the development of higher quality and integration of the Yangtze River Delta cultural industry. The three provinces and the city also has a high aspiration for the success of the forum.

Starting from the launch of the Yangtze River Delta International Cultural Industries Expo, the cultural industry in the Yangtze River Delta region will usher in a new stage and would enjoy a brighter future through collaboration and integration on a wider scope and at a deeper level.