China's State Council Information Office on Thursday held a press conference in which four officials briefed reporters about the progress of the cultural industry since the country launched a nationwide reform in June 2003.

Four senior officials, respectively from the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, the General Administration of Press and Publication, the Ministry of Culture and the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television (SARFT) were present at the conference.

Following are some facts and figures on the latest development of China's culture industry:

-- From 2004 to 2008, the added value of national cultural industry grew by 22 percent annually on average. In 2008, the added value of China's cultural industry stood at 763 billion yuan, or 2.43 percent of China's GDP that year.

-- In 2009, the output value of the press and publication industry exceeded one trillion yuan.

-- Annual output of animation movies now stands at 170,000 minutes, or 13 times that of 2003.

-- The number of cable TV subscribers has reached to 175 million.

-- The proportion between imports and exports of copyrighted books has fallen from 15:1 in 2002 to 3.3:1.

-- More than 8.85 million copies of books, newspapers and periodicals were exported.

-- By the end of June this year, 228 performing arts troupes had been restructured.

-- The number of private arts troupes in China has exceeded 6,800, with annual performance sessions reaching up to 2 million.

-- So far, 1,444 public museums and commemoration halls under the administration of cultural or heritage departments at various levels nationwide have been opened to public for free.

-- In the first half of 2010, 149 cinemas and 596 screens were added to the mainstream market in China, which took the total to 1,826 cinemas and 5,300 screens.

-- Now 163 large and medium-sized cities in China have transformed their cable networks into digital cable networks. The users of digital cable networks now exceed 65 million households.

-- The revenue of the film industry exceeded 10.6 billion yuan (about 1.56 billion U.S. dollars) in 2009, a year-on-year growth of 26.47 percent, while the revenue of the radio and TV sectors reached 158.2 billion yuan, an increase of 17.18 percent year on year.

-- Now Chinese publications are sold in more than 190 countries and regions and Chinese newspapers and periodicals are distributed in more than 80 countries and regions.