Xinhua reports:

BEIJING, Aug.19 -- China will open its book, newspaper and periodical wholesale market to overseas investors by the end of this year, China's senior publications official said Wednesday in Beijing.

    Overseas investors will be allowed to form book, newspaper and periodical wholesale and retail firms by the end of 2004, said Yu Yongzhan, deputy director of the General Administration of Press and Publications...

..."Foreign capital in the publications sector is now mainly focused in the printing industry," he said.

    Yu cited official statistics, which showed the administration has approved 202 foreign-funded printing companies in 2002 alone, with a total investment of US$568 million...

...In the publications retail market, the administration has already approved 11 foreign-funded companies...

...Yu stressed that China is not yet ready to open its publishing sector to overseas firms.

    But Chinese and overseas publishers can strengthen copyright trade and jointly publish material, he said.

    The copyright trade has been brisk over the past few years. Statistics show China has imported 58,077 copyrights from overseas publishers between 1995 and 2003.

    In contrast, the export of China's copyrights are only a 10th of the imports, or 5,362 over the past nine years...

...China has 570 book publishers, 320 audiovisual product publishers and 121 electronic publication publishers, according to the latest statistics.

The Xinhua report is here.