The Chinese government is loosening control over private publications dealers as the amount of private capital increases in the publishing business.  

Shi Zongyuan, director of the State Press and Publication Administration, Wednesday said his administration would work to create a proper environment of fair competition for private publication dealers as a priority next year.

The government would create a favorable environment for all kinds of ownership in the fields open to private dealers, Shi said.

Regulations on the Administration of Printed Publications took effect on Sept. 1, 2003, allowing private companies to take up wholesale distribution of publications, but still keeping them out of publishing.

The publishing industry long monopolized by state fund has embraced more and more private companies.

China's publishing sector sold 16.06 billion books, magazines and newspapers in 2002 with gross sales of 99.39 billion yuan (US$12.02 billion), with 50.13 percent of publications sold by non-state bookstores, accounting for 56.34 percent of the country's total.

Now the country has at least 20 to 30 private publications firms, each with sales more than 100 million yuan.

Although private publishers are forbidden, a number of private publications companies have cooperated with state-owned publishers in commissioning and marketing publications.

Private companies could provide more attractive and flexible ideas than their state-owned counterparts, said Mao Wenfeng, head of a Keyi private publications firm, based in east China's Jiangsu Province.

Some private companies have cooperated to become stronger in the tough competition. Private publications firms in Nanjing city, Jiangsu Province, set up an association in July.

Private companies had never tried to compete with state-owned firms, but would like to work with them to compete with foreign companies, said Wang Yiming, deputy president of the association.

In May, China issued a regulation on administering foreign companies which invest in publication distribution in China. The rules allow foreign firms to engage in publications retail business.

The government is committed, under its World Trade Organization (WTO) obligations, to open both retail and wholesale distribution to foreign companies by December 2004.

(Xinhua News Agency January 1, 2004)