BEIJING, Jan. 10 (Xinhuanet) -- China will boost the cultural sector in its rural areas, faced by a great demand for cultural products by farmers, said Vice-Minister of Culture Zhou Heping here Tuesday.

    At a general meeting for senior cultural officials ending here Tuesday, Zhou told reporters that the construction of the cultural sector in China's rural areas still lags behind economic and social development, which is mainly reflected in four aspects.

    First, Zhou said, the national input in rural cultural sector is obviously insufficient, as in 2004, China put 3.011 billion yuan (around 375 million US dollars) in the field, which only accounted for 26.5 percent of the nation's total and lowered by 47 percentage points than that of the urban areas.

    Secondly, most rural areas has no modern infrastructure for cultural use. By July, 2004, 23,687 cultural centers in 38,240 towns and townships were in urgent need for renovation.

    Zhou said that thirdly, the public cultural service in rural areas is facing great difficulty. In 2004, as many as 720 county-level libraries had no funds to purchase books, which accounted for 26.4 percent of the public libraries in China. Most county-level film companies and artistic troupes had no products or performances.

    Fourthly, Zhou acknowledged, cultural products and services were still insufficient. In 2004, the national-level artistic troupes staged 234,000 performances in rural areas, while the figure had once reached record 820,000 in 1963.

    Pinpointing such problems, Zhou said China will include rural culture construction into the 11th five-year (2006-2010) plan for the national development. By the end of 2010, China will have realized the goal that every county has its own library and cultural center.

    From 2006 to 2008, China will invest 20 million yuan (around 2.5 million US dollars) to deliver five million books to the poorest rural areas. The Chinese government at all levels will help county-level libraries and cultural centers to adopt reform and invite all types of businesses to participate in the rural cultural sector, Zhou said.

    Zhou urged cultural administrations in rural areas to focus more on the creation of artistic products featuring rural life, calling on artistic troupes in urban areas to give performances free to rural residents. China welcomed more public funds to be put into rural cultural sectors and encouraged farmers to run cultural businesses on their own. Enditem