Professor Xiong Chengyu, director of the Tsinghua National Research Center for Cultural Industry, delivered a keynote speech on "Pluralistic Coexistence, Keep Space with Times" at the UNESCO’s Third World Forum on Culture and Cultural Industries, in Florence, Italy on October 2-4, 2014.

During his speech, he took Alibaba’s listing and other recent cases as examples to introduce the status of China's cultural industry, analyzed the role of statistical indicators in promoting the development of the cultural industry and appraised the 2009 UNESCO Framework For Cultural Statistics. He also presented suggestions on how to improve the current United Nations Cultural Development Index, based on industrial development, technological advancement, societal change and international needs.

Professor Xiong’s comments were well received by the experts at the forum. The UNESCO cultural officials, EU cultural statistics advisor and Australian economists expressed their wish to cooperate with Tsinghua University National Research Center for Cultural Industries to conduct joint research on the International Cultural Development Statistics Index.

Irina Bokova, the Director-General of UNESCO and 300 delegates from different countries also attended the forum.