A total of 12 areas across China have been required to innovate, protect and develop the copyright of Chinese folk cultures as a national pilot program.

The pilot consists of four provincial-level areas — Jiangsu, Sichuan and Guizhou provinces and the Inner Mongolia autonomous region — as well as eight cities, including Weifang in Shandong province, Huangshan in Anhui province and Jincheng in Shanxi province.

The pilot was launched by the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the eight cities during this year's International Copyright Forum, which was held in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province, on Thursday.

Folklore is a major part of socialist cultures and also an important treasure of Chinese civilization, so it is essential to strengthen protection, inheritance and utilization of folk cultures, the department said.

The move is not only a requirement for promoting the creative transformation and innovative development of traditional cultures, but also a key way to enhance the country's cultural soft power and improve its cultural self-confidence and self-growth, it said.

While giving full play to advantages of local folk resources and clarifying the current situation of the country's folk customs, the pilot areas should enhance public awareness of protecting the copyright of folk cultures and promote copyright innovation, application, management and services, it added.

At the opening ceremony of the forum, Zhang Jianchun, vice-minister of the department, called for greater efforts to fully advance high-quality development and further stimulate creation through copyright.

"Whether to develop creative industries or promote cultural prosperity, copyright protection is the premise and guarantee, so we'd like to increase exchanges and cooperation with the world," he said.

Additionally, a case study of best practices in copyright protection led by the World Intellectual Property Organization was also launched at the forum, which attracted more than 200 representatives from home and abroad to attend both online and offline.