Public funding to assist designers

A project launched by the ministries of culture and finance in 2014 will continue to support and train talented designers, especially those from China's western cities, officials of the Ministry of Culture said on Thursday.

A special fund from the central government will continue to assist the project to train talented designers, finance their attendance of cultural fairs and expos, and offer them opportunities to design for museums and related industries, says Song Qihui, a senior official of the Ministry of Culture.

This year, the project will shift its focus from designers in big cities to those from underdeveloped areas in the country's west, especially places that are home to different ethnic groups, such as the Tibetan and the Yi people in the provinces of Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan, where tourism is also flourishing.