Massive financial fillip awaits cultural industry

Financing and investment firms can further facilitate the high-quality development of cultural products and services, thereby helping cope with the downward pressure exerted by the slowing economic growth, experts said.

Traditionally, the cultural products industry had been ridden with high uncertainty, risks and low level of stability. Hence, investors tended to steer clear of it.

But, as the country is mulling more supportive policies to give a fillip to the cultural products industry, a host of sectors are now looking at it. They include investors, financiers, insurers, consumer finance providers and tax policy experts.

The draft first cultural industry promotion law, which began to take shape with a request for public opinion this month, suggests more opportunities may be awaiting the sector, they said.

The cultural industry has wide scope spanning fields like news, publishing, televisions, films, performance, animation, online games, music, relics, crafts and design.

As per-capita GDP of China is about to surpass $10,000 this year, the consumption structure of Chinese people is expected to see a significant change, increasing the demand for spiritual products as people pursue a better life, in line with the all-round consumption upgrade, said Fan Jianping, chief economist of the State Information Center.

He made the remarks at a forum organized by the PBC School of Finance at Tsinghua University and Dongcheng district of Beijing.

Zhou Yanli, former vice-chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, said at the forum that most of the cultural firms are small and micro players with less than 50 employees or annual revenue of less than 5 million yuan ($710,000), while some are no more than personal studios or individuals.

"They are asset-light and rely much on creativity, which means they don't have a stable profit model and life cycles are relatively short," he said, adding more financial support should be given to such small and micro businesses.

Mature financial tools can help de-risk investments in, and other forms of association with, cultural companies.

Insurance, for example, can provide risk management and economic compensation services, as well as enhance their credit to get more financing elsewhere, he said.

It is common for Hollywood filmmakers to apply for bank loans by cooperating with insurance and guarantee services providers, he said.

Financial technologies, or fintech, can also help reduce uncertainty of returns on investments, so that the cultural field can attract more capital. Blockchain, for example, can help in authentication of artworks, Zhou said.

Wang He, former vice-president of the People's Insurance Company of China, said finance firms tend to expect their clients to be controllable and whose value can be specifically defined, but the cultural industry is full of uncertainty. "We can only know the value of a film through its box-office data after its release.

"Financial firms should understand, accept and respect the nature of the cultural industry, and enhance risk management by various technological methods."

Wang further said such services are already available in the market. Beijing-based tech company Trinity Earth, for instance, is able to assess a play or film and predict its popularity in advance using big data.

He said cultural content producers can also use the intellectual property as mortgage.

At the event, Dongcheng district of Beijing was approved by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Ministry of Finance and the People's Bank of China to construct a national demonstration zone for cooperation between the cultural industry and finance.

The district will work on establishing a credit rating system for cultural enterprises, expanding direct financing and innovating in related financial products and services, to ease the difficulty and lower the cost of financing for private, small and micro cultural firms, according to Ma Feng, deputy director of the industrial development division of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Zhao Lei, deputy director of Beijing municipality's publicity development, said culture and finance are two pillar industries of the city economy. Revenue of the cultural industry in Beijing grew 11.9 percent to reach 1.07 trillion yuan in 2018, data from the local government showed.

Su Zhong, chairman of Daye Transmedia Group, a Beijing-based firm specializing in film, TV opera and animation, said investors often show more interest in tangible assets and the lack of funds has hindered the development of culture.

"Intangible assets are of great value, which has huge potential and will benefit the whole society in the long run," he said.

Liu Shaojian, director of Beijing's State-owned cultural assets administration center, said the city is working on establishing a cultural development fund, a risk compensation fund, a credit rating system and appraisal system for intangible assets, to help more cultural companies get financing and lower the risk of investment firms.