Eastern China's Shandong Province eyes on enhancing the Third Industry by cultivating its time-honored culture.

The province will bring the culture industry into a market-oriented mechanism to boost its service industry, says Xu Xiangqian, vice minister of the provincial Department of Propaganda, on a news conference in the capital city of Jinan Wednesday.

The Shandong International Culture Industry Fair, which will open on Friday, is one of the major measures the province takes to implement the strategy. With the theme of Culture, Innovation and Fortune, the fair will serve as an international platform for major cultural exchanges and economic cooperation. Up to now, 1448 cultural projects valued over 150 billion Yuan is prepared to invite bid and investment on the fair. The province has set up a data base of cultural projects to seek long-term marketing.

The most attractive point of the fair is by all means the Confucius culture, which is originated right in Shandong. A series of exhibitions and activities related to the great Confucius are to be seen during the three-day event.

As one of the highlights, six figurines and 200 paintings of Confucius collected from all over the world will be shown on the fair. After the fair, they will be sent back to Qufu, the birth place of Confucius.

(Chinadaily.com.cn June 15, 2006)