The administrative committee of China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone signs a strategic cooperation deal with the National Library of China in Beijing June 7. [Photo/china-shftz.gov.cn]

The administrative committee of China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone signed a strategic cooperation deal with the National Library of China in Beijing June 7.

The two sides will work together on research and development (R&D) into intellectual property (IP), creative cultural products, development of international channels for artworks, and business operations.

This cooperation, based on the National Library's rich collections and strong literature mining capacity, and Shanghai FTZ's preferential policies and solid cultural industrial foundation, is expected to build a closer tie between national cultural resources and further promote the inheritance and development of Chinese culture.

Sun Yigang, deputy director of the National Library, said that the library now has over 600 IP products and more will be developed based on the cooperation with Shanghai FTZ.

Hu Huanzhong, chairman of Shanghai FTZ International Culture Investment and Development Co, said that the FTZ has built partnerships with the National Museum of China and many provincial museums, giving them support in product R&D, fundraising and trade channels.

In this way, the FTZ combines its strength in market operation with State-level IP resources, greatly improving its creative cultural products, Hu added.

The Shanghai FTZ, established in 2013, has achieved great success over the past five years. Its cultural industry, an emerging industry, has kept expanding, with Its industrial output growing year by year.

The National Library of China serves as the repository of the nation's publications, a national bibliographic center, a national center for preservation and conservation of ancient books, as well as the national museum of ancient books. It now has more than 37 million volumes of literature.

It united 37 libraries nationwide to build a creative cultural product development alliance in September 2017, aiming to promote the creative cultural industry.

Creative cultural products developed by a development alliance of the National Library. [Photo/china-shftz.gov.cn]

Creative cultural products displayed at the National Library of China. [Photo/china-shftz.gov.cn]