The State Press and Publication Administration is to encourage the development of large-scale press and publication groups.

According to the administration's 10th Five-Year Plan for the year 2001 to 2005, five to 10 publishing groups and five to 10 newspaper groups will be formed.

The organization anticipates an annual sales volume of 2 billion yuan (US$240.1 million) for publishing, and an annual revenue of over 1 billion yuan (US$120.5 million) for the newspaper groups.

The plan also includes the development of chains of bookstores across provinces, and urges co-operation between book stores and publication centers in each province, to cater to the market need.

The move is aimed at upgrading the nation's publishing ability, Administration Director Yu Youxian told a conference in January.

There are currently seven newspaper groups in China, including Guangming Daily, Economic Daily and Guangzhou-based Guangzhou Daily, as well as three distribution groups in Guangdong, Jiangsu and Sichuan provinces.

Electronic publications, such as CD-Roms and software, are also being encouraged, as they are seen as the future trend in the publication industry, Yu said.

Under the plan, two electronic publication bases will also be formed by the year 2005.

So far, the administration has issued regulations concerning the electronic publications.

Seven electronic publishers participated in a Beijing Publication Subscription Fair for the first time recently.

In the past two years, the administration has suspended a number of newspapers affiliated to government departments to cut the number of the publications which are not of high quality, and has also upgraded printing facilities.

These efforts paid off, for the industry made 116.7 billion yuan (US$14 billion) in profit in 1998, an increase of 17.3 per cent over 1997, according to official statistics.