BEIJING, May 2 (Xinhua) -- China's cultural industry recorded robust revenue growth in the first quarter, partly boosted by strong gains from news and information service providers, official data showed.

The combined revenue of companies in the sector rose 8.3 percent year on year to reach 1.98 trillion yuan (294.25 billion U.S. dollars) in the first three months, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

In breakdown, revenue from news and information services increased the most during the period, up by 20.9 percent from one year earlier, while cultural investment, creative design, cultural dissemination channels and production of cultural content also saw double-digit growth.

The NBS data came from a survey of 55,000 companies above designated size across nine cultural sectors in 31 provincial regions.

As the country tries to shift its growth model to one that draws strength from domestic demand and services, it is planning to develop the cultural industry into a pillar industry of the national economy by 2020.