Guangdong Bolsters Greater Bay Area's Creative Sector Via Cultural Finance

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 22 (Bernama) -- The 2024 Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Cultural Industry Investment Conference convened in Guangzhou from Nov 20 to 22, bringing together representatives from financial institutions, industry associations, investment firms, listed companies, and cultural technology enterprises.

Themed “Cultural Finance Empowering the Greater Bay Area: Industry and Technology Reinforcing Each Other”, the conference featured key investment initiatives and innovative cultural technologies, including the film Fall Into the Mortal World, virtual digital museum characters, and advancements in humanoid robotics.

According to a statement, the event also highlighted cultural products with strong intellectual property potential, underscoring the region’s progress in digital cultural industries.

As key cultural hubs, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, and Macao leveraged their abundant resources to highlight developments in artificial intelligence-generated content, digital production, and smart cultural manufacturing. These efforts contribute to a dynamic ecosystem that supports new forms of cultural consumption and digital creativity.

During the conference, two major reports were unveiled, namely the 2024 Cultural Industry Investment Report and the 2024 Trends Report on Cultural Industry Investment in the Greater Bay Area.

These reports highlighted investment trends and revealed that cultural industry financing in the area has reached approximately 52.82 billion Chinese yuan over the past five years. Guangdong’s cultural sector, which boasts an annual growth rate of over 10 per cent, remains the leader in China in both scale and revenue. (100 Chinese yuan = RM61.64)

In 2023, Guangdong’s culture-related enterprises generated 2.2483 trillion Chinese yuan in revenue, accounting for one-seventh of the national total, in which Shenzhen alone contributed over one trillion Chinese yuan, with cultural manufacturing making up nearly half of this revenue.

Guangdong is a global leader in niche cultural segments such as gaming, animation, and creative design, producing 80 per cent of China’s gaming and amusement equipment. The province also dominates national revenues in gaming (80 per cent), digital music (25 per cent), digital publishing (20 per cent), and animation (33 per cent), underscoring its competitive edge.

-- BERNAMA