China's fast growing animation industry has been attracting more and more exchanges and cooperation with international companies.

The International Animation Business Conference (iABC), a business sector of the 13th China International Cartoon & Animation Festival in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province was held from April 24 to 27. Among the guests was a delegation of UK companies concentrated on children's animation. It was their first attendance at the festival and was aimed at finding potential cooperation opportunities with Chinese animation companies.

The UK companies, with different perspectives on the components of kid's animation including content creation, production and publishing, were selected at the Children's Media Conference, a three-day event held every July in the UK. Famous companies and TV channels like BBC Kids, eOne Entertainment and Zodiak Kids attended in a bid to crack the Chinese market.

To promote one-to-one talks between the two countries' companies, the iABC provided an exclusive meeting room with small round tables. The meeting room was like a fair where the companies were able to choose any UK counterpart to discuss potential cooperation.

Tony Humphreys, a consultant for the Department of International Trade of the British government, was  the major link in the delegation's visit. An independent producer for many years, Humphreys has some working experience with Chinese companies and is quite familiar with China's film and television industry.

"There are lots of mutual interests between China and the UK that can be explored more fully," said Humphreys, adding that "Both China and the UK have old traditional cultures and I think underneath there are some similarities in people's attitudes towards animation and the creative industry." He believes that Chinese and British people can understand strong and profound stories as they all grow up in a rich literary environment.

As regards the outcomes of the talks between Chinese and UK companies, Humphreys said the delegation got valuable information about development trends in China. He used as an example reading machines for children, which he hopes to introduce to British kids as soon as possible.

Though this time the talks concentrated on kid's animation, which might be quite narrow, the visit marked a good beginning for the exchanges of the two countries in the animation industry generally, according to Humphreys. He also said film and television contents vary from one country to another, which leads to different rules of application. "Some (contents) are suitable for the local market while others may be more influential when being promoted internationally," he said. It's anticipated that the cooperation between Chinese and UK companies will produce more works that can become popular around the world.