This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone. To mark the occasion, we are publishing a series of reports celebrating the city's achievements in different aspects over the past four decades.
As the only national, internationalized and integrated cultural industries fair in China, the China (Shenzhen) International Cultural Industries Fair (ICIF) focuses on exhibition and exchange and is committed to building a trade platform for China's cultural industry products and projects.
Every year, more than 100,000 cultural products and more than 6,000 investment and financing projects of the cultural industry are displayed and traded at ICIF, which is billed as the No. 1 fair of China's cultural industries.
As early as 2003, Shenzhen established strategies for developing a culture-based city and formulated a series of supportive policies to promote cultural industries. ICIF officially settled in Shenzhen in 2004 and has since become an annual event.
After 15 years of growth, the exhibition area of ICIF has increased from 43,130 square meters in 2004 to 105,000 square meters last year.
The number of exhibitors grew from more than 700 in 2004 to 2,312 in 2019, and the number of countries and regions attending the fair rose from more than 10 in 2004 to 103 last year.
Under the strong promotion of local governments, the most representative cultural institutions, quality projects and key products from across the country were organized to make their presence at the fair.
Delegations from all 34 municipalities, provinces, autonomous regions and special administrative regions of China have attended ICIF for 10 consecutive years, and all 21 prefecture-level cities of Guangdong Province have taken part in the fair for six straight years.
ICIF has also taken the lead in developing a "Culture +" pattern that boosts the integration of culture and technology, Internet, finance, commerce, tourism, sports, fashion and other industries.
Regarding culture as the decisive force of the city's competitive strength, Shenzhen has learned to develop toward internationalization by growing its cultural industries. The innovation-driven ICIF has also become an engine to drive the development of China's cultural industries.