Forum points way for city to become cultural hub

White paper released at event unveils Beijing's growing industrial strengths

The inaugural Beijing Culture Forum, which highlighted progress made by the capital in its cultural construction and cultural heritage protection, wrapped up on Tuesday.

With the permanent theme of "inheritance, creativity and mutual learning", the two-day event gathered more than 500 officials, experts and cultural industry practitioners to discuss new trends in cultural reform and put forward innovative ways for the high-quality development of the cultural industry.

Showing Beijing's determination to build itself into the country's cultural center, the forum included an opening ceremony, main forum and four subforums respectively themed on cultural inheritance and evolution; cultural exchange and cooperation; the integrated development of culture and technology; as well as the creation and dissemination of high-quality literary and artistic works.

Organizers also lined up tours of Beijing's central axis, Shougang Industrial Park and the Grand Canal Museum, as well as other cultural attractions in the capital, for forum participants.

Addressing the event, an official of the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, stressed the importance of transforming the forum into a first-class platform for promoting cultural development and innovation, and shaping it into a cultural brand with Chinese allure and global influence.

At the forum's opening ceremony, he called for more efforts to strengthen public confidence in Chinese culture, meet the intellectual and cultural needs of the people, and deepen dialogues among civilizations.