A BROADER VIEW OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS HAS been highlighted by the nation's leadership after the economy has topped its agenda for more than three decades.

The Sixth Plenary Session of the 17th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, which concluded on Tuesday, came up with a new blueprint for the reform of the nation's cultural institutions and outlined a guideline to improve the nation's culture.

Culture is now treated as an economic sector subject to regulation through State policies and promotion through State entrepreneurship. The value added from the cultural sector reached 1,100 billion yuan ($173 billion) by the end of 2010, with an annual increase of 23.3 percent, which is faster than the growth rate of the country's GDP, and the government is approaching culture as a development resource.