China will formulate its first-ever law on promoting the film industry this year in the world's second largest movie market, top legislator Zhang Dejiang said Wednesday.

No further details were given by Zhang as he presented a work report on the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature. A draft version had already been submitted to lawmakers for deliberation last year.

Earlier reports said the draft had set out to revoke unnecessary film making permits, simplify the process of regulatory reviews to which prospective scripts are subjected, and make it easier to hold film festivals.

It also offered film makers incentives in financing, taxation and land use and encouraged Chinese companies to invest overseas in collaboration with other film production companies.

Box office fraud and piracy were also among top concerns addressed by the draft, which explicitly forbade stealth video recording of movies in theaters.

A late comer in modern film making, China has quickly caught up with other countries in terms of market share.

Chinese cinemas took in a record 6.87 billion yuan (about 1.05 billion US dollars) in ticket sales in February, about 250 million dollars more than the North American market, which is still the world's largest.

"The Mermaid," a Chinese comedy fiction and environmental parable directed by Stephen Chow alone raked in more than 3 billion yuan as of March 8, becoming the most successful Chinese film of all time. 

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