China to establish pioneer free film trade zone in Tianjin

Tianjin Binhai Hi-tech Industrial Development Area is to build the first free film trade zone in China to promote the country's cultural industry, China News reported on July 31.

The goal of the free trade zone in northern China is to attract foreign production teams to make films about Chinese culture and stories. Many co-produced films nowadays solely center on western culture despite the participation of Chinese actors, Wang Wei, vice director of management committee of the area, noted.

Wang said the free film trade zone will address problems such as tariff, visa and equipment leasing.

As China's first batch of national culture and technology demonstration base, the area has been striving to develop the cultural creative industry. At present, the industry's GDP accounts for nearly 6 percent of the region's total, and is expected to reach 10 percent by 2020 with the film culture industrial chain totaling over 100 billion yuan ($14.87 billion).