On Oct. 26, the Belt and Road Cultural Trade and Exhibition Trade Fair of 2018 China Beijing International Cultural & Creative Industry Expo (ICCIE 2018) opened in the National Base for International Cultural Trade Beijing. The Belt and Road Cultural Trade and Exhibition Trade Fair aims to improve projects’ brand awareness and influence of companies, earnestly promote the implementation of key projects of the Belt and Road cultural trade and investment, and further increase size of China's external cultural trade.
Distinguished guests attended the opening ceremony, including Li Xiaoming (Deputy Director of State-owned Cultural Assets Supervision and Administration Office of the People’s Government of Beijing Municipality), Che Yanling (Deputy Commissioner of Beijing Customs District P. R. China), Xiang Dechun (Deputy Director of Beijing Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage), Li Luxia (Deputy Director of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade Beijing Sub-council (CCPIT Beijing) and Deputy Director of ICCIE Organizing Committee Office), Song Jianming (Deputy Managing Director of the Management Committee of Beijing Tianzhu Free Trade Zone Culture Free Port), Yue Yanmei (Deputy Chief of Beijing Shunyi District Government), and Zhou Maofei (Party Secretary and President of Beijing Cultural Investment Development Group Co., Ltd. (BCI)). Guests who received the special invitation also included Li Debiao (Former Ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of China to Nepal), Long Yuxiang (Executive Chairman of China International Cultural Communication Center), Ryudo Kasaai (Chairman of Japan-Sino Association for Revitalization of Traditional Culture), Xu Yanting (President of Huangcheng Culture Co., Ltd. and Head of Asia Art Center), Qi Xiao (President of Beijing Danghongqitian Culture Group) and other guests from domestic and foreign companies and media houses.
“The 19th CPC National Congress attached great importance to cultural development and culture is the soul of a nation’s development and a soft power which plays a vital role in national and regional development. Since inception, BCI has been paying great attention to cultural development and has made breakthroughs in product introduction and investment promotion. It has built cooperation with nearly 40 companies in such areas as artworks, film & TV, books and cultural equipment, gradually developing itself into a platform for cultural trade”, noted by Mr. Zhou Maofei. Mr. Zhou also emphasized that, “BCI bears the mission of communicating and developing national culture and strives to contribute to cultural development”.
(Zhou Maofei, Party Secretary and President of Beijing Cultural Investment Development Group Co., Ltd.)
Ms. Li Luxia has visited the National Base for International Cultural Trade (also known as Beijing Tianzhu Free Trade Zone Culture Free Port) for many times. She noted that, “BCI has a responsible, conscientious and inspiring team that has moved me sincerely. As Chairman of Beijing Association for Trade in Services, I will mobilize more human resources to promote foreign cultural development”.
(Li Luxia, Deputy Director of CCPIT Beijing and Deputy Director of ICCIE Organizing Committee Office)
Mr. Song Jianming then gave a speech. He said, “ ‘the Belt and Road’ is not only the road to business development but also to cultural development. The National Base for International Cultural Trade (also known as Beijing Tianzhu Free Trade Zone Culture Free Port) will make more efforts to improve the base for international cultural trade, export base and the service system, enhance Beijing’s cultural function, expand the domestic and international markets, and contribute to cultural prosperity”.
(Song Jianming, Deputy Managing Director of the Management Committee of Beijing Tianzhu Free Trade Zone Culture Free Port)
“Cultural exchange and trade is a strong tie for the ‘Belt and Road’ ”, noted by Li Xiaoming. Cultural trade is the best bridge and tie for communication of different peoples. The National Base for International Cultural Trade will focus on key projects and enterprises of the “Belt and Road” cultural trade and investment of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the PRC, recommend and display products with external cultural strategies, cooperate on the projects with countries and enterprises along the “Belt and Road” , help promote development of national culture, and to prepare for a bright future of people-to-people exchange and the National Base for International Cultural Trade.
(Li Xiaoming, Deputy Director of State-owned Cultural Assets Supervision and Administration Office of the People’s Government of Beijing Municipality)
The Fair then held the ceremony for enabling the logo of the National Base for International Cultural Trade Beijing. The new logo of the National Base for International Cultural Trade Beijing is an important carrier of its brand, showing its brand image and cultural features. The new logo is a flying wild goose, implying improvement, breakthrough and development of the National Base for International Cultural Trade Beijing, acting as the engine for driving Chinese culture to go global and introducing foreign culture into our country, and demonstrating its determination and confidence in building a hub and platform for development of cultural trade of the “Belt and Road”.
After that, Mr. Yang Jie, Secretary of the School of Arts Administration and Education at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, and Mr. Liu Wu, Vice President and General Manager of BCI International Holding Co., Ltd., inaugurated the Art Finance Center of the National Base for International Cultural Trade. Built jointly by the National Base for International Cultural Trade Beijing and the School of Arts Administration and Education at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, the Art Finance Center will focus on art finance and commit itself into the development of the platform integrating production, teaching and research; it will actively explore the development direction and model innovation of art finance, integrate topic research, talent training and market practice, and promote good connection of arts with finance to provide strong support to the development of art trade.
A ceremony was also held for the joining of 8 companies including Asia Art Center, Beijing Danghongqitian Culture Group, Beijing Language Services Center for Cultural Trade, and Beijing Shengxuan Arts Development Co., Ltd., which demonstrated important progress made by the Industrial Clustering Center of the National Base for International Cultural Trade in attracting enterprises operating in domestic and foreign cultural trade.
After the opening ceremony, attendants visited the exhibitions of key projects of the Belt and Road cultural trade and investment of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and projects for joining the base. Led by Qi Xiao, President of Danghongqitian Culture Group, they also engaged in the opening ceremony of Danghongqitian Innovation Center in the National Base for International Cultural Trade.
The Belt and Road Cultural Trade and Exhibition Trade Fair will have the exhibition of 40 key companies and projects of the Belt and Road cultural trade which are entering the base, and will hold the Conference on Promoting Key Projects of the Belt and Road Cultural Trade and Investment on the afternoon of Oct. 26 and Oct. 27. The Conference on Chinese Cultural Product Marketing -- 2018 International Forum on Trade in Artworks will play an important role in promoting international cultural exchange and trade.
The National Base for International Cultural Trade Beijing, also known as Beijing Tianzhu Free Trade Zone Culture Free Port, was established jointly by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the PRC and Beijing Government under a ministry-municipality cooperation framework and officially authorized by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the PRC. According to the arrangement of Beijing Municipal Committee and Government, BCI has been fully responsible for the development of the National Base for International Cultural Trade since July 2017, and the newly built BCI International Holding Co., Ltd. will be the entity specifically responsible for construction, operations and management of the base. The base is located within Beijing Tianzhu Free Trade Zone, near Beijing Capital International Airport, with a floor surface of 235 Mu (157,000 square meters) and a total building area of about 500,000 square meters. Following the Belt and Road Initiative and strategic requirements of cultural development and giving play to the advantages of the bonded policy, function and services, the base provides international services including exhibition experience, exchange & promotion, trading & delivery, incubation, financing & investment, and warehousing & logistics with such 3 functional areas as the Clustering Center for International Cultural Trade Enterprises, the Center for International Cultural Products Exhibition and Warehousing Logistics, and the Center for International Cultural Products Trading. Based on Beijing, serving the whole country and aiming for the world, the base is committed to developing itself into a global center for cultural exhibition, exchange and trading.