Showbiz opens up to foreign investors
By Wang Shanshan (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-09-09 05:56

Besides dismantling barriers in market entry, the amendment also modified the role of the government in the regulation of the market.

No government departments are allowed to organize or sponsor for-profit performances.

Moreover, no government departments are allowed to ask for free tickets to performances from the agencies, troupes or venues, according to the amendment.

"Our research showed that about one-fourth to one-third of the tickets to a performance are given to government organs without charge," Wang, from the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council, told China Daily.

To develop the country's cultural industry, the State Council has issued the amendment along with other recent moves.

In July, the Ministry of Finance, the General Administration of Customs and the State Taxation Administration issued a regulation that gives businesses in the cultural industry preferential treatments in taxation.

According to the regulation, provincial governments are required to publish preferential tax rates for such businesses within the year.

South China's Guangdong Province was the first to issue a policy last month, giving a three-year exemption of the corporate income tax to all businesses in the cultural industry established after January 1, 2004.

The cultural industry, by the definition of the provincial government, includes businesses in animation, art exhibition, broadcasting and television, design, film, newspaper and publishing. The industry also includes related sectors such as distribution, Internet, logistics and printing.

Though still a young industry, it already has grown to a reasonable size, said Meng.

By the end of 2004, the Chinese mainland has seen 2,600 performance troupes, 1,500 museums, 2,700 libraries, 280 broadcasting stations and 370 television stations.

Also last year, more than 260 films were released, 6.5 billion volumes of books were published and 26 billion copies of national and provincial newspapers were sold in the mainland.

(China Daily 09/09/2005 page5)