BEIJING — China saw 522,100 newly registered cultural enterprises in 2018, an increase of 6.9 percent from the previous year, said Luo Shugang, minister of culture and tourism, on June 26.

The number of cultural firms reached 3.09 million by the end of 2018, accounting for 8.9 percent of the total businesses across the country, said Luo when briefing lawmakers on a report of cultural industry development at the ongoing session of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress.

The added value of the Chinese cultural industry totaled 3.47 trillion yuan ($505.1 billion) in 2017, accounting for 4.23 percent of GDP, up 12.8 percent from the previous year, said Luo.

In 2017, there were nearly 21.4 million people employed in the cultural industry, compared with some 8.73 million in 2004.