BEIJING — China had built 575,384 cultural centers in its rural areas as of December 2020, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism said in a statement.

The country has made major progress in improving the public cultural service sector, the ministry said.

China encourages cultural centers and libraries in county-level regions to increase their branches, the statement noted, adding that more than 20,000 such facilities have been built as of the end of last year.

These cultural centers and libraries are expected to create more refined book-reading and arts spaces for the public, according to the statement.

The ministry in March released a statement to optimize the primary-level networks and vowed to boost the high-quality development of public cultural services.