China to reform publishing system

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, April 07, 2004

China to reform publishing system

The central government has decided to restructure the publishing system. All publishing houses will be transformed into enterprises, except the People��s Publishing House, which still remains a commonweal public institution says Liu Binjie, Deputy Director of State Press and Publication Administration.

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The central government has decided to restructure the publishing system. All publishing houses will be transformed into enterprises, except the People's Publishing House, which still remains a commonweal public institution says Liu Binjie, Deputy Director of State Press and Publication Administration.

To cater to the trends of industrialization in China's publishing industry, the restructuring of the publishing houses has become one of the key tasks for the reform of cultural system this year.

The State Council has approved the transformation of China Publishing Group into China Publishing Group Corporation.

There are currently 527 publishing houses in China. In 2003, 171, 000 types of books and 6.87 bln volumes were published. Some publishing houses still show distinct features of planned economy even though they underwent reform and restructuring in recent years.

As for the reform in the field of book distribution, the State Press and Publication Administration has set a goal for Xinhua Book stores, according to which the shareholding reform will be completed within this year. As per China's commitment made when joining the WTO, China will open book retail market nationwide for foreign capitals as from Dec 1 this year. Foreign capitals will not be subject to any restrictions thereafter. Investors can decide their investment proportion, project and where to locate themselves. In the meantime, the entry barrier for private capital will be much lower, according to Liu Bo, Director of Distribution Department, State Administration of Press and Publication.

A survey conducted by the Chinese Research Institute of Publishing Science indicates that there are at least twenty to thirty private book enterprises with assets over hundreds of millions yuan in China and the majority of them are engaged in publishing and distribution.

By People's Daily Online

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