[15:34:41]The organizing committee of the Shandong International Cultural Industry Fair held its second press conference at 16:00 on June 18. The meeting was hosted by Liu Baoju, deputy minister of Publicity Department of CPC Shandong Provincial Committee.

[16:00:07]Mr. Liu: Good afternoon, everybody. 2006 Shandong International Cultural Industry Fair (SDICIF) is to be closed today. Now, I’d like to invite principals of SDICIF organizing committee to say something about the major progress and achievements we scored at the fair.

[16:00:24]Mr. Xu Xianghong, deputy minister of Publicity Department of CPC Shandong Provincial Committee and deputy director of the Organizing Committee of Shandong International Cultural Industry Fair; said, first of all, on behalf of SDICIF organizing committee, I express heartfelt thanks to you for covering the fair. With  energetic support and help from the central government and ministries as well as all walks of life, the fair is to lower curtain with success. Entrusted by the organizing committee, I would like to report to you matters concerned about the fair.

[16:01:52]Mr. Xu: The three-day fair displayed the mien of Shandong’s culture, brought forth its innovative results of cultural development and built up a large platform of cultural exchanges, economic and trade cooperation. The fair attracted 965,000 people to take part in various kinds of activities. Of them, 718,000 visited exhibitions (468,000 visited main exhibition place and 250,000 the four sub-exhibitions). About 241,000 people participated in cultural activities and more than 6,000 attended forums.

[16:03:56]Mr. Xu: We have had big harvest in attraction of investment. With the development of “Shandong cultural industry project database”, we have collected more than 1,500 projects and provided 273 projects for contract bid. As a result, 137 contracts with investment totaling 31.6 billion Yuan (US$3.7 billion) have been signed with financing amount of 21.7 billion yuan (US$2.7 billion).

[16:04:36]Mr. Xu: The number of projects with an investment of more than 100 million yuan each was 66. The number of projects each with an investment of more than 2 billion yuan was two. Thirty one major contracts with a total investment of 17.6 billion yuan were inked at one signing ceremony. Sixty letters of intents were singed with contractual investment of 27.3 billion yuan including 24.9 billion yuan of financing amount. The investment of a top project surpasses 10 billion yuan.

[16:05:14]Mr. Xu: Qingdao Jinlong Cultural Development Co Ltd and International Financial Investment Group of Hong Kong signed a 2.4 billion yuan contract, the largest of its kind, to jointly construct the World Culture Village. The Linyi Municipal Government and Hollywood of the United States signed a letter of intent to build Linyi-Hollywood (Bohai Ring) Cultural Industry Zone with investment amounting 12.8 billion yuan (US$1.6 billion). Besides, the trade volume of cultural products reached 160 million yuan during the fair.

[16:06:20]Mr. Xu: Ten forums were successfully organized. Their titles were “Confucius culture and cultural industry”, “protection of cultural resources”, “promotion of cultural industry”, “developing strategy of Shandong’s radio film and TV industry”, “development of publication industry”, “development of China’s arts and crafts industry”, “calligraphy”. “photography”, “development of folk culture in Shandong” and “The Analects”. The ten forums entered into the development trend of cultural industry from various fields and angles and achieved a number of new theoretical results.

[16:07:20]Mr. Xu: During the fair, the third forum on Chinese enterprise culture was held in Jinan. More than 400 representatives from nearly 250 well-known enterprises were present at the meeting, creating an intellectual and information platform for developing cultural industry and promoting exchanges and prevalence on the concepts of advanced cultural industry

[16:09:20]Mr. Xu: The arrangements of exhibition halls materialized the whole image of “cultural Shandong”. Six exhibition areas and outdoor folk-custom culture area had their own features.

[6:10:08]Mr. Xu: Interactive activities such as on-the-spot performances, skill displays, antique appraisals and product trading lured numerous visitors. Extensive attention was paid to the standard portrait of Confucius. Visitor really realized the elegant demeanour of cultural industry through the exhibition.

[16:11:24]Mr. Xu: Rich and colorful cultural activities were organized, offering domestic and foreign guests with sumptuous cultural treat. During the three-day event, five large shows and 18 square performances were presented.

[16:13:08]Mr. Xu: More than 450 senior officials and celebrities from at home and abroad were present at the fair. More than 1,600 standard booths were built attracting 535 exhibitors from Shandong and other provinces as well as Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and overseas. 

[16:14:31]Mr. Xu: The fair has drawn extensive concerns from at home and abroad. More than 600 journalists from 138 domestic and overseas media reported the fair. People’s Daily, CCTV, Guangming Daily and Economic Daily published news about the fair on their vital pages. The “International Daily” of the United States and “Overseas Chinese of South America” of Brazil printed reports on the fair for 8 days in a row.

[16:15:16]Mr. Xu: “China’s Internet Media''''s Shandong Web Tour” was conducted successfully. Twenty five main central and local news webs, including Renmin, Xinhua, China, sina, sohu and Netease reported the fair from the beginning to the end. Nearly 570,000 pieces of news on the fair were put on line and daily clicks reached about 500,000. The fair’s social impacts were expanded, attracting foreign students studying in China to visit the fair.

[16:17:14]Mr. Xu: The fair was spoken highly by celebrities at home and abroad. Domestic and foreign people enjoyed the expressions of cultural industry through taking part in colorful exhibitions and cultural activities. More than 200 visitors from Europe and America very much liked the plentiful and extensive Shandong culture and Confucius culture.

[16:20:41]Mr. Xu: The fair was organized based on the principles of “government dominates, society participates and market operates in light of management standards”. In addition to necessary policy support and service and a few start-up fund, the government did not directly involve in the fair. All activities were organized by Dazhong Newspapering Group with enterprises taking part in. More than 70 million yuan was raised for more than 80 cultural activities.

[16:21:49]Mr. Xu: The fair’s complete success is attributed to the following factors: solicitude and recognition of both central and local authorities; energetic support of the leading groups of Shandong Province; careful and thoughtful preparations; participation of people from all walks of life; Solid and effective guarantee measures.

[16:22:57]Mr. Xu: Friends and journalists, all of you did an excellent job during the three-day fair. Your immediate and splendid reports on the fair, your professional ethics and high-efficiency won extensive acclaim. It can be said, the publicity and reports on the fair are successful. This is the results of our joint efforts. For this reason, we express heartfelt thanks to you and hope you will continue to support the development of Shandong’s cultural industry in the future. The press conference is over. Thanks.