China is working to close the gap of cultural development between developed and poor regions in order to meet the public demand and enhance the country's soft power, the cultural minister said on Wednesday.
Currently, cultural development in rural-urban fringe zone, poor areas, ethnic minority regions and border areas still lags far behind developed regions, Luo Shugang cited a report by the State Council up for review to the top legislature's week-long bimonthly session starting from Monday.
Inadequate cultural services are partially caused by local government's "overemphasis on economic development and deliberate ignorance to cultural development," the report said.
About 601,000 rural libraries have been built in China's villages, said the report, adding 16,000 digital libraries have been built in the country's poor, remote areas.
More publications, TV and radio programs in ethnic minority languages have been produced and publication of books for the blind have been strengthened, it said.
According to the report, China ranked the third globally in terms of the annual amount of film production. Meanwhile, it was the world's largest TV series producer.
China has attached more importance to culture. A draft law on the overall national security strategy, tabled for its second reading on Monday, called for reinforced education and dissemination of socialist core values, to prevent the infiltration of harmful moral standards and culture.
