Liu Minxia

    mllmx@msn.com

    SHENZHEN has established more than 50 cultural industry parks, but most of them still rely on government subsidies and renting properties to survive, a recent report by Jones Lang LaSalle’s Shenzhen office showed.

    To foster the development of the cultural industry, one of the four pillar industries of the city, the Shenzhen government has been encouraging the building of cultural industry parks in the city and has seen the establishment of some famed parks such as the Tianmian “City of Design“ Creative Industrial Estate and Shenzhen OCT LOFT Creative Culture Park.

    “These parks are facing growing challenges, as some traditional property developers swarmed in to vie for a slice of the market,” said Zhang Ning, an industrial properties department manager at Jones Lang LaSalle.

    In addition, rental prices for offices at Shenzhen’s cultural industry parks has been surging, keeping some creative culture industry start-ups from using the offices built for them. “Companies in the creative culture industry are growing slowly because of the nationwide economic slowdown, which has resulted in high vacancy rates at such parks,” said Zhang.

    To find their way out, Shenzhen’s cultural industry parks need to upgrade and remodel themselves by improving their own industry chains, becoming more Internet-based or by combining the cultural and financial industries.