Ministry to encourage M&As of culture industry

The Ministry of Finance said on Monday it will spend most of its annual budget for the culture industry on encouraging mergers and acquisitions, innovations and investment in overseas markets, activities that are to be led by State-owned enterprises directly under the central government.

The decision indicated that China is likely to approve more merger and acquisition proposals among publication agencies, and encourage central SOEs to be leaders in the deals.

Central SOEs' innovations in digitalized publication, Internet broadcasting, mobile multimedia and other industries will make it easier to obtain financial support from the central government, according to the ministry.

Beyond that, the country is expecting more overseas investments for the cultural industry to be raised by central SOEs. Their international expansion plans, including plans to cooperate with overseas companies, build overseas distribution network and establish affiliated companies, are also likely to win government endorsements.

Earlier this year, the country said it plans to double the added value of the culture industry by 2015. The total output of China's culture industry hit 3.9 trillion yuan ($612 billion) in 2011, contributing more than 3 percent of the country’s annual GDP, industry reports showed.