Background materials on the reform and development of the press and publication sectors
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2. Industrial system, ownership structure and regional distribution have seen constant optimization. In 2009, there were 581 book publishers, 380 audio & video publishers, 240 e-publishers, 180,000 printing and reproduction institutions, 160,000 distribution outlets in China and the press and publishing sector employed a total of 4.5 million people. A complete industrial system has been established which focuses on book, newspaper, periodical, audio-video, e-book, Internet and mobile publishing plus printing, reproduction, distribution and foreign trade and also involves education and research activities, copyright licensing, supply of materials and international cooperation. In the fields of printing, distribution as well as story and image design, businesses with various ownerships are set up including state-owned ones, privately-owned ones and foreign-funded ones. In terms of regional distribution, featured industry clusters as well as copyright, publishing, printing, logistics and digital publishing bases with international competitiveness have been developed in the Pearl River Delta, the Yangtze River Delta and the Bohai Sea Rim.
3. The public service system has been improving. Since 2006, five major public service projects have been launched one after another including the Selected Works Publishing Project, the Village Library Project, the Publishing in Ethnic Minorities' Languages Project, the Reading for All Project and the Greening the Publishing Market Project, extending the rural, grassroots and frontier service networks. The Key Project Foundation finances over 2,000 publishing projects every year to spread traditional Chinese culture and promote reading among the public. An accumulative total of over RMB 6 billion has been invested in the Village Library Project to build 380,000 libraries for farmers, communities, employees, soldiers and migrant workers, benefiting hundreds of millions of people. The project has also helped to promote reading among the public and stimulate consumer spending.
4. The "go global" strategy has taken initial effect. Now Chinese publications are sold in over 190 countries and regions and newspapers and periodicals are distributed in more than 80 countries and regions. In 2009, over 8.85 million copies of books, newspapers and periodicals were exported, up 10.4% over 2008. Copyright import to export ratio decreased from 15:1 in 2002 to 3.3:1 in 2009. Chinese companies have opened more than 290 publishing houses, newspaper offices, periodical presses, bookstores and printing houses in foreign countries. The "go global" drive has shifted from copyright trade and export of products to making direct investment and expanding distribution channels overseas.
II. Restructuring of the Press and Publishing Industry
The booming of China's press and publishing industry is attributed to the restructuring of the sector. Since the launch of the reform and opening up policy, particularly the convening of the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Party and government leaders have made a series of wise decisions and rational deployment about cultural undertakings in China, leading to considerable progress in the key areas of the restructuring of the press and publishing sector. 1. Marked results have been achieved in transforming for-profit press and publishing institutions into enterprises and eligible market players. With 96.3% of the legal persons being businesses, market entities have largely taken shape in China's press and publishing sector. China has 581 publishing houses. Except some Braille, ethnic minority languages, and military publishing houses, which will remain public institutions, 435 out of the 528 for-profit publishing houses have been transformed into enterprises and the transformation of the other 93 publishing houses is in process. A total of 1,069 non-current affairs newspaper and periodical presses have registered as or transformed into business entities. Except in some ethnic minority areas, over 2,900 Xinhua bookstores across China have been turned into enterprises. So far, China has witnessed the establishment of 29 publishing groups, 49 newspaper groups, four periodical groups and 24 state-owned circulation groups. Forty-one news and publishing enterprises have been listed in China or overseas.
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