Senior Chinese leader Li Changchun Tuesday praised the country's structural reform of the press and publication sectors, saying great achievements were made last year.

Li, a Standing Committee member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made the remarks in a written instruction to a national working meeting of the press and publication industry.

Li said the country saw new achievements in the export of publications and copyright trade, and he hoped the press and publication industry would continue to lead the country's culture system reform.

China's booming publication industry was helped by structural reform that enabled for-profit products under market mechanisms.

Statistics showed in the 11th five-year period (2006-2010), a total of 1,251 publishing organs with non-political products, and more than 3,000 Xinhua Bookstores, outlets of China's largest state-owned book seller, had been corporatized to become self-financing enterprises.

The press and publication industry has 45 listed companies and more than 100 group companies, with the printing and distribution sectors accepting private and overseas capital.

The past five years had seen the production of 33.8 billion books, twice the number of the 10th five-year period (2001-2005).

Liu Binjie, director of the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP), said in a report that remaining publishing organs of non-political publications should become self-financing enterprises by the first half of 2012.