East China city aims to expand film, tourism industries

Updated: 2011-11-11 20:13

By Rong Xiandong and Xu Pingting (chinadaily.com.cn)

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Dongyang city in East China's Zhejiang province, well-known for its private enterprises, is striving to grow its film and tourism industries as the central government encourages the development of the cultural industry.

The city's Hengdian Film Industrial Park, which hosts a film base known as China's Hollywood, aims to achieve an annual business revenue of eight billion yuan ($1.26 billion) by 2015, according to the city's five-year plan for the development of the park.

To attain the goal, the city hopes to increase the number of enterprises in the park to 600 by 2015 and annually produce about 20 percent of the country's films and teleplays.

The park hosted 382 companies at the end of 2010, and realized business revenue of three billion yuan in 2010, according to statistics provided on the city's website.

The Hengdian film base, a popular national tourist attraction, has greatly promoted the development of local tourism and other tertiary industries like catering and service sectors.

In 2010, the base received 8.41 million tourists, an increase of 22 percent from the previous year.

So far, the town of Hengdian has 11 star-rated hotels. It plans to build or rebuild at least 15 such hotels from 2011 to 2015 to accommodate rapidly increasing numbers of tourists.

In addition, the industrial park plans to invest billions of yuan in the next several years to upgrade and build new shooting locations and holiday facilities.

Dongyang city needs to develop the film and tourism industries according to market demand, said the Hengdian industrial park administration committee. The economic development in Zhejiang province, largely boosted by the private sector, has spurred great demand for cultural products including movies.

The output value of the province's cultural industry stood at nearly 100 billion yuan in 2010 and it is expected to reach 180 billion yuan by 2015, accounting for five percent of the province's gross domestic product, the People's Daily reported.

The administration committee said it will provide more support in financing, policy and infrastructure in the 2011-2015 period to boost the city's film and tourism industries.