China Central Television:

In recent years, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council have consistently deepened reforms to streamline administration, delegate powers, improve regulation, and strengthen services and coordinated the efforts in the reform of the government review and approval system as well as the business system. In terms of the cultural and tourism field, what has been done to deepen the reform to streamline administration, delegate powers, improve regulation and strengthen services to energize market entities and build a market-based and law-based international business environment? Thank you.

Rao Quan:

Thanks for your question. I'll take this question. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, under the decision and deployment of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, we have deepened these reforms in the culture and tourism sector. By giving play to the roles of both the government and the market, we have taken a series of reform measures to separate permits and certificates from business licenses, accelerate the building of the system for ongoing and ex-post oversight to energize the culture and tourism market, speed up the transformation and upgrade of market entities and promote order and prosperity of the market system. By the end of 2021, there were 191,000 cultural companies nationwide, which employed 1,511,400 people. There were 16,000 art troupes, up by 123.2% compared with 2012. They gave 2,325,000 performances last year, attracting a total of 930 million audience members; the online music market was valued at 62.69 billion yuan ($9.15 billion), or 13.8 times that of 2012; there were 42,000 travel agencies throughout the country last year, compared to 25,000 in 2012. Our work is mainly as follows:

First, intensify efforts to streamline administration and delegate powers. We have delegated the approval of commercial Internet cultural organizations and foreign-related commercial performances to the provincial cultural and tourism administrative departments and delegate the approval of travel agencies invested and established by Hong Kong and Macao companies in the pilot free trade zones to the administrative departments of the free trade zones to provide convenience for companies to go through procedures nearby. Moreover, we have also canceled several administrative approval items like the temporary tour guide.

Second, comprehensively improve the service related to business approval. We have lifted the restrictions on foreign investment in internet services venues, entertainment venues, performance brokerage agencies, and performance companies. In areas such as the pilot free trade zones, notification commitments are implemented for the establishment of travel agencies. The time it takes for approval of the import and export of fine art has been reduced from 20 working days to no more than 13 working days; we have also streamlined the approval procedures for cross-regional performance tours to relieve pressure on companies. We have established a national cultural market technology supervision and service platform and the national service platform for tourism oversight and introduced online approval of all procedures related to access management.

Third, introduce a new model of oversight. We have established and improved the new regulatory mechanism featuring the random selection of both inspectors and inspection targets, the prompt release of results, and the Internet Plus Oversight initiative, focusing on key targets and credit supervision. We have introduced the tourism service quality supervision policy, published the culture and tourism market credit management regulation, and launched special campaigns to regulate the cultural and entertainment sector and address unreasonable low-cost travel to promote the high-quality and diversified development of the cultural and tourism market. With the emergence of new business modes like online tourism, tourist accommodation, online performances, and script entertainment, we have introduced the provisional regulations on the management of online tourism business and strengthened the management of script entertainment venues, drawing a red line to promote the sustainable development of the industry.

Moreover, we have continued to deepen the reform on law enforcement of the cultural market and integrated and organized a comprehensive law enforcement team that fulfills their duties in six sectors, including culture, cultural relics, publications, radio and television, movies, and tourism under the deployment of the central government. As we continue to improve the system and strengthen team building, our law enforcement, with the aid of new internet technologies, has become more standardized and professional. To make our law enforcement more effective and efficient, we have firmly followed a people-centered principle, conscientiously fulfilling the law enforcement and supervision duties, ensuring that law enforcement is strict, procedure-based, impartial, and civil, carrying out special campaigns to address the problems and guarantee epidemic prevention and control, workplace safety, and market order. These efforts are aimed at ensuring stability in the culture and tourism market.

That's all for my answer to your questions.