Central authority calls for promoting cultural system reform

A leading group of cultural system reform and on Friday called for accelerating China's cultural development to boost the country's soft power. After a decade of exploration and practice since the 16th congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the country's reforms on cultural systems have reaped substantial fruits and resulted in remarkable achievements, according to a statement released after a meeting of the group. The group was formed by several culture-related government departments and is under the leadership of the Communist Party of China Central Committee. Liu Yunshan, head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, and State Councilor Liu Yandong delivered speeches at the meeting. Local governments have tackled difficulties in transforming for-profit cultural agencies into enterprises, establishing a cultural service system and law enforcement agencies for the cultural market and coming up with innovative ways to promote culture abroad, the statement said.