Overseas investors have shown growing enthusiasm over entering the Chinese publishing market since the country joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) at the end of last year. The Press and Publication Administration has been receiving an avalanche of applications for setting up printing, packaging and publication distribution businesses in China as it loosens market access for overseas investors, according to a national meeting on Sino-foreign exchanges and cooperation in press and publishing held recently in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province.

China's publishing sector now enjoys a considerable volume of trade with the rest of the world and has established a book import and export system operating at a number of levels within country.

In the meantime, overseas investments into the industry of processing and manufacturing of publications have been booming. In 2000, a total of US$350 million of overseas investments into 17 printing houses were ratified. In 2001, 22 printing houses lured investments totalling US$160 million. From January to August 2002, 63 packaging and printing projects with total investments of US$660 million in south, east, and western China all won approval.

China's entry into the WTO also has significantly boosted its capacity to produce DVDs as several foreign-invested CD-R production lines have recently started operations. The level of investment for single projects is multiplying -- some projects have involved investments surpassing 100 million yuan (US$12.1 million) with up to 50 production lines. It has been forecast that the next hot spot for international investors will be the circulation sector.

Similarly, China's copyright trade has undergone admirable developments. Statistics show that from 1990 to 2000 China imported at least 18,000 items of copyright. At the Ninth Beijing International Book Fair (BIBF), held from May 24 to 28, 2002, the first international book fair following China's WTO entry, attracted signatures on as many as 8,000 letters of intent. Meanwhile cooperative publishing of periodicals moves forward as international copyright traders have pushed into the area of magazines. Sino-foreign co-published lifestyle and technology magazines have made a positive impact on China's magazine market and are proving profitable.

(china.org.cn by Chen Chao, September 16, 2002)