Edmond VII Mballa Elanga, an official from Cameroon's Ministry of Culture, assists the Chinese artist with some deft dabs on the canvas during his visit to Putian's OUYA Art Co. (PHOTO BY LI XIAOYU)

In 1981, when artist Liu Guotai established his oil painting company in Putian City of southeast China's Fujian Province, there was no local oil painting industry, but only some small-scale oil painting workshops.

Today, Putian has become one of China's three famous oil painting cities, the other two are Xiamen, Fujian Province and Shenzhen, Guangdong Province. The city has a total of over 20,000 artists, and houses more than 500 galleries and studios. Every year, over 300,000 oil paintings are exported to African countries, including Morocco, Algeria, South Africa and Egypt, earning export value of about $500 million.

Putian is a microcosm of China's cultural industry development. According to the European Fine Art Foundation Art Market Report 2014, China's global share of the art market clocked in at 24 percent in 2013, representing 11.4 billion euros in sales. For two consecutive years, China has ranked second in the global art market behind the United States.

The awakening art industry has brought new hope to the African continent. "In Africa, people have realized the potential of the cultural industry and creative economy, and they consider culture not as the byproduct of economic development, but as an effective way to get rid of poverty and unemployment," Hadmaloum Ould Baba, an official from Mauritanian Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports, told ChinAfrica at the Second Roundtable on China and Africa Cultural Industries held from May 25 to June 2 in Beijing and Putian.

Culture is a key word in the poverty reduction documents of some African nations. However, it must be confessed that most African countries are lagging behind and are still excluded from the global cultural industry chains. According to a report on cultural industries released by the International Organization of Francophonie (OIF), lack of funding and shortage of professionals and experts are the bottlenecks of developing cultural industries in most developing countries. African delegates attending the roundtable also hope to cooperate with China in those two areas.

Increase funding

The development of the oil painting industry in Putian is supported and guided by the local government. According to Liang Jianyong, head of the Putian Municipal Party Committee, the city has adopted a series of measures to build Putian International Oil Painting Mall, which includes granting tax exemption and reduction, organizing large-scale oil painting exhibitions, participating in the China (Shenzhen) International Cultural Industries Fair, Canton Fair (or China Import and Export Fair) and other academic exchanges and activities.

In addition, during the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-15), the annual fund of 6 million yuan ($967,742) has been allocated to the cultural industries, while the annual fund is planned to be increased to 10 million yuan ($1.6 million) by the end of that period.  

"[But] the development of cultural industries in most African countries is still facing severe funding problems. The government almost didn't establish any subsidy mechanism or tax exemption and reduction system for entrepreneurs. It's also difficult for business runners to get loans or other banking services," said Jiang Jun, a researcher at the Institute of African Studies of Zhejiang Normal University.

More and more African countries are thinking of how to make up the financing gap, and how to develop their own cultural industries with the help of external investment.

StarTimes Co. Ltd. has been the first Chinese private enterprise to enter Africa's digital television market. Since its entry in 2002, the enterprise has registered and set up local companies in 23 African countries, and carried out digital TV operations in 12. With a total investment of $400 million and over 4 million subscribers across Africa, StarTimes is now the fastest-growing and influential digital TV operator in the region. 

Projects such as digital TV are characterized by big investment and long periods of investment return. For private companies such as StarTimes, funding is always the biggest problem. The company's Chairman Pang Xinxing once mortgaged his house when his company was in the most difficult period of entering the African market.

To better the capital chain, StarTimes innovatively cooperates with African governments to realize digitalization. African governments apply to the Chinese Government for two preferential facilities, namely, concessional loans and preferential buyer's credits, which are used as government aid to developing countries. African governments are in charge of digital transformation of national television stations and provide TV set-top boxes free of charge to each family with television.

As the investor and project operator, StarTimes invests on broadcast control systems and transmission networks, and it also takes charge of network construction, programs procurement and marketing operations. The company deducts $0.6-0.8 from the monthly subscription fees to repay the loan from the Chinese Government.

"This collaboration takes into account the interests and concerns of all parties, and the result turns out to be good," said Guo Ziqi, Vice President of StarTimes. According to him, some African countries have already submitted applications to the Chinese Government for preferential loans. StarTimes has achieved a win-win development model, which sets a good example for China-Africa cooperation in cultural industries.

Train professionals  

The development of cultural industries relies on professionals and technical experts in every country. However, the situation in Africa is worse. On one hand, "there is a serious shortage of technical experts at all levels of the cultural industries, making the industry chain incomplete," said researcher Jiang Jun.

On the other hand, "without providing a stable and decent income, the professions of artists, musicians, producers or craftspeople become less attractive, which has resulted in serious brain drain of artistic talents in African countries," Jiang said, adding that the situation has been getting worse in recent years.

During a visit to a furniture manufacturer in Putian, André-Pierre Gawandjio, a Gabonese cultural industry representative, praised how the local craftsmen made fine furniture out of wood. "I hope our craftsmen can learn those techniques and skills to process timbers, rather than simply exporting timbers," he said.

Echoing Gawandjio's view, Alamouta Dagnoko, Deputy Director of the Cultural Affairs Division of Malian Ministry of Culture, also hopes that China can send some experienced artists to Mali to teach local craftsmen the artistic skills and techniques, so as to increase their income.

In fact, China and African countries have conducted talent exchanges and personnel training in recent years. The personnel training project between west China's Qinghai Province and the Republic of Benin is one of those efforts.

Benin is well known for its handicrafts industry among African countries. However, according to Benin Handicrafts Association, most of the artisans live in poverty, due to the relatively backward mode of production, the poor product quality and service, and the lack of funds in the industry.

In 2011, some experts from Qinghai gave a short-term training program to Beninese craftsmen and artists at the Chinese Cultural Center in Benin. Those artists showed great interest in learning Chinese wiry enamel craft, and the artworks made by Beninese artists were sold well in the market.

Experts say China-Africa cooperation in cultural industries is unlike Western colonists' irresponsible exploration, or the previous Chinese one-way aid without considering economic costs and returns. The current cooperation is based on mutual benefit and is win-win, and only this kind can last longer.