China Thursday announced an ambitious plan to establish 200,000
bookstores in its vast rural areas in five years.
"Each rural bookstore project will at least have 1,000 books, 30
magazines and periodicals and some audio visual products," Liu
Binjie, vice director of the State Press and Publication
Administration told a news briefing.
China Wednesday publicized a national program on cultural
development during the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-2010).
The program, issued jointly by the General Office of the
Communist Party of China Central Committee and the General Office
of the State Council, listed cultural development in rural areas as
a top priority.
Liu said the project, with a total investment of four billion
yuan (about US$506 million), is aimed to promote education and
popularize science and technology in rural areas.
He said the bookstores, with each to be built at an estimated
20,000 yuan, will be sponsored by the government and also open to
public donation.
"Within 10 years, we hope each village will have its own
bookstore," he said.
China's rural population is about 900 million.
(Xinhua News Agency September 14, 2006)
