Beijing-based People's University of China (or Renmin University) opened the nation's first culture and science park Monday, according to sources with the university.

The park will serve as an open platform for knowledge services and become a major base for cultural industries by taking advantage of the leading academic research and human resources in the university, said officials with the university.

The park, designed mainly to develop the cultural industry, hasdrawn a great variety of companies from industries including publishing, mass media, information technology (IT) and finance.

The park was approved by the Beijing Municipal Commission of Science and the Beijing Municipal Education Commission in July 2003.

China started building science parks, which are mostly funded and directed by institutions of higher learning, in 1990 and has forged 36 such parks at the national level by late 2003, said Chinese Vice Minister of Education Zhao Qinping.

Zhao also acknowledged that the 3,881 companies in the 36 parks totaled 18.5 billion yuan (some 2.23 billion US dollars) in industrial output and created around 100,000 jobs in 2003 alone.

The prestigious People's University of China is a national leader in spheres of theoretical economics, applied economics, law,journalism and sociology.

Source: Xinhua