China's investment in its cultural industry saw a year-on-year increase of 20.9 percent in 2004, according to statistics released by the Planning and Finance Department of the Ministry of Culture. But the investment gap between rural and urban areas is has enlarged.

China invested 11.36 billion yuan (US$1.4 billion ) in the cultural industry through financial allocations last year, but only 3.01 billion yuan (US$371 million ) was input into the cultural industry in rural areas, accounting for 26.5 percent of the total investment.

The average investment ratio for the rural cultural industry went up 15.6 percent, but the growth rate of in rural areas was still lower than that in urban areas.

The government also increased investment in the cultural industry in China's western region, with 2.435 billion yuan (US$300 million) pouring into the region last year. But that merely represented 21.4 percent of the total, in contrast to a favorable 78.6 percent in the country's central and eastern regions.

The new statistics also show that the financial allocations to the cultural industry stemmed mainly from the central government. In 2004, the investment ratio of the central government rose by 23.3 percent, 7.9 percent higher than that from local governments.

(Xinhua News Agency August 10, 2005)