Culture fest with a twist

The 2015 Beijing Culture Expo this year features the Belt and Road Initiative, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei integration and various initiatives in technology and finance.

The 2015 China International Culture and Creative Industry Expo, now in its 10th year, was launched on Thursday at Beijing's China International Exhibition Center.

A full slate of forums, exhibitions and competitions in the culture and creative realm will be held through December across the city.

Some parallel sessions will also be held in Yangzhou in Jiangsu province.

Exhibitors from more than 40 countries and regions have gathered for the event.

The expo also has delegations from 23 provinces.

"The Beijing Culture Expo is the window to understand China's creative sector and its cutting-edge industries," Li Wei, vice-president of the expo's organizing committee and secretary-general of the Beijing municipal government, said at the opening ceremony.

In the 10 years since the expo was launched, Beijing's creative sector has gone on to become one of the pillars of the city's development, says Li.

The sector has grown at a rate of 17.3 percent annually since 2006.

In 2014, it contributed 13.2 percent to the city's gross GDP.

The deals signed during the last nine expos are worth 590 billion yuan ($93 billion), according to official statistics.

"The expo provides fuel for the growth of industry," Li says. "At the expo, you can always catch the tempo of the times."

The theme this year is "promote cultural prosperity and facilitate innovation".

As the Belt and Road Initiative continues to expand its influence in nearly all realms of business inside and outside the country, the expo also shows the project's impact on the cultural front.

Local crafts and artistic products from regions along the Silk Road, from Kyrgyzstan to the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, are on show.