The 2019 Yangtze River Delta International Cultural Industries Expo opens at the National Exhibition and Convention Center, Shanghai on Nov 21. [Photo/zj.zjol.com]

The 2019 Yangtze River Delta International Cultural Industries Expo opened at the National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai on Nov 21 and will last until Nov 24.

The expo, now in its second year, is a marked improvement over last year's event, with twice the floor space (540,000 square meters) and three times the number of exhibiting companies (more than 870).

The companies specialize in fields such as filmmaking, online game design, art trade and entertainment, and 109 of them are from 17 overseas countries and regions. 

The expo is co-hosted by the publicity departments of Zhejiang, Shandong, Anhui, and Shanghai.

Zhejiang has an exhibition area of over 4,000 square meters and is displaying cultural products from 130 local companies, including four of the "Top 30 National Cultural Enterprises" such as Zhejiang Publishing United Group and Zhejiang Huace Film & TV Co.

In addition to the exhibition, a series of forums and other activities will also be held, including a forum on film development and finance to be held on Nov 22, which is hosted by the publicity department of Zhejiang. Several projects will be signed at the forum.

Zhejiang has witnessed a boom in its cultural industry in recent years.

Statistics show that the province's 5,637 cultural and related enterprises above the designated scale (companies with annual revenue of more than $2.84 million) generated total revenue of 509.9 billion yuan in the first half of the year, up 13.1 percent year-on-year. Profits reached 75.4 billion yuan, up 37.9 percent.