Shortage of innovation harms creative exports

Industries relying on intellectual property rights contributing more to GDP, yet greater efforts needed

Although China's copyright-based industries are contributing more to the overall economy, the country is still far from being a copyright-innovative country, experts said.

China's creative industries and their interdependent manufacturing sectors have boomed in recent years thanks to improved protection. But weak exports suggest its products lack appeal overseas, according to an official analysis released by the National Copyright Administration on Friday.

China's copyrights-based industries generated about 3.15 trillion yuan ($507 billion) in annual production value in 2011, an annual increase of 19.56 percent from 2010; and they accounted for 6.67 percent of the country's GDP, said the report, titled The Study of the Economic Contribution of the Copyright-based Industries.

In 2011, copyrights-based industries provided jobs for about 11.2 million people, 1.37 million more than in 2010.

In 2011, the total exports from China's core intellectual property-dependent industries, including the creation of literary works, music, film, software development, and press and publication generated $5.3 billion in revenue, contributing only 1.86 percent of copyright-relevant exports.

Despite the general increase, the limited export sales from core industries showed China still lags far behind IP powers like the United States in creating globally marketable products with independent copyrights, pundits said.

"Our copyright-dependent industries' exports still heavily rely on sales from traditional manufacturing businesses, which means we should take an objective view of the growth," director of the administration's copyright management department Yu Cike said at the report's release.

According to the analysis, China's copyrights-related industries' export revenues totaled $286 billion in 2011. More than 90 percent came from interdependent sectors, including the manufacture of televisions, radios, computers and relevant devices.

Yu noted a "huge difference" compared to the US, which enjoyed nearly $141 billion in overseas sales from its core copyright industries, including music, film, publication and software, in the same year. This far surpasses other sectors in the US like aircraft and automobile manufacturing.

The US' annual production value totaled $1.68 trillion in in 2011 - more than triple China's - and contributed 11.16 percent of its GDP.

Zhao Bing, director of the copyright research center affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Press and Publication, attributed China's meager exports to the country's lack of creativity in key areas.

"The shortage of innovation in our cultural industry and software development has hampered our export products' ability to earn customers in the mainstream markets overseas," Zhao said.

China had to import 16,639 kinds of copyrights in various areas and exported only 7,783 in 2011.

Publications about traditional Chinese medicine, Chinese martial arts and preschool education contributed the lion's share of China's exported copyrighted products. Most were sold to Asian countries, and Chinese communities in Europe and North America, the analysis said.

Translation is a major obstacle for the international marketability of Chinese publications, artworks and audiovisual products, East China University of Political Science and Law intellectual property professor Wang Qian said. "China's cultural products face a language barrier in mainstream markets overseas."

"This is another hurdle for copyrighted exports' growth, along with a lack of creativity."

Still, better translation has helped bridged the barrier, Wang said, citing Chinese writer Mo Yan's Nobel Prize win.

The country should continue to improve intellectual property rights' protection by updating laws and strengthening punishments on infringements to boost copyrighted products' exports, Wang suggested.

"Only through the defense of the benefits of the rights' holders and investors will more people be encouraged to create more works and products with independent copyrights," Wang said.

sunxiaochen@chinadaily.com.cn