Ineke van de Pol, counselor of Press and Culture at the Netherlands embassy in China, and Monique Knapen, program director China of the DutchCulture Center for International Cooperation, visit the State-owned Cultural Assets Supervision and Administration Office of Beijing on Nov 15. [Photo/bjwzb.gov.cn]

Beijing and the Netherlands are preparing to upgrade their cooperation in the cultural creative sector.

Ineke van de Pol, counselor of Press and Culture at the Netherlands embassy in China, and Monique Knapen, program director China of the DutchCulture Center for International Cooperation, paid a visit to the State-owned Cultural Assets Supervision and Administration Office of Beijing (SOCASAO) on Nov 15.

The guests visited the Beijing Cultural Creative Industry Exhibition Center, learned about the development process of the city’s cultural creative industry and relevant statistics, and spoke highly of the achievements Beijing has made in this sector.

The two sides also held a meeting on promoting friendly exchanges and sorting out problematic issues. The Dutch officials expressed their wishes to strengthen connection with SOCASAO and bring the cultural communication and cooperation to a higher level.

DutchCulture Center for International Cooperation is a subsidiary of the Dutch Ministry of Education, Cultural Affairs, which coordinates the application and use of the national cultural funds in the Netherlands.

China and the Netherlands have witnessed closer people-to-people exchanges, and reached fruitful results in recent years. The Chinese cultural centre in the Netherlands will be officially open by the end of this year. Cities including Beijing and Shenzhen have launched Dutch design exhibitions, light festivals and other cultural exchange activities. The two sides also organized training and on-site creation programs for senior management personnel and artists from museums and art galleries in both countries. 

The Netherlands attaches great importance to the development of cultural creative industry. The central government of the Netherlands has established an organization named “Creative Embassy”, which aims to push forward the country’s cultural creative industry.