Industrial park to boost Beijing's creative industries

Visitors walk down Zhongguancun Entrepreneurship Street in Haidian district, Beijing. Zhongguancun Entrepreneurship Street is home to many entrepreneurs thanks to the policies encouraging start-ups across China. Peter Thiel, co-founder of the payment service PayPal, said Beijing has a great startup culture, just second to Silicon Valley in the USA during his visit to Beijing this February. [Photo/qq.com]

BEIJING - Beijing plans to build an industrial park in the city's outskirts in an attempt to boost its creative industries, local authorities said.

"China Creative City", to be established in Yizhuang Economic and Technology Development Zone in southeastern Beijing, will help creative start-ups with research and development before their products enter mass production, said Yang Zhiyong, Secretary General of the China Creative Industry Alliance.

Creative industries are economic activities concerning the exploitation of knowledge and information, which includes film, music, advertising, software, among others.

With an investment of more than 5 billion yuan ($815.9 million), it will help generate some 10,000 jobs in the area. The 127,000-square-meter park is expected to be completed in three years, Yang said.

Beijing is stepping up development efforts for the creative industry. The city plans to build 20 such industrial parks on an area of 442 square km, with added values accounting for at least 15 percent of the city's gross domestic product by the year 2020.