The Chinese magazine market will open wider for foreign magazine publishers seeking business opportunities in the country, a top press and publication official said yesterday.

"Foreign publishers' jointly-funded projects in China enjoy the same legal protection and policy treatment as their Chinese counterparts," said Liu Binjie, minister of the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP).

The Chinese each year purchase more than 10,000 magazine titles with a circulation of 4 million copies and "domestic readers can access many world-famous magazines locally," Liu told the two-day meeting of the 6th International Federation of the Periodical Press (FIPP) World Magazine Congress, which opened yesterday.

"International magazine producers are welcome to join the Chinese market, and their joint ventures are encouraged to produce international periodicals targeting the global market."

More foreign participation is expected in periodical exports, copyright trade, copyright protection and magazine printing, services and technology based on the commitments the country made while joining the World Trade Organization, Liu said.

The country has launched copyright trade collaboration with more than 50 periodicals, and will soon approve projects between some prestigious international magazines and Chinese periodicals.

China has 2,200 foreign-funded printing enterprises, undertaking printing businesses that cover more than 40 countries and regions.

It also has 70,000 private distributing enterprises and 45 with sole or part foreign investment.

"The printing industry is totally open to the outside world and there is no policy obstruction," Liu added.

Official figures show there are 9,468 Chinese magazines with an annual sales turnover of $5.2 billion and a circulation of 2.85 billion. They are available in more than 100 countries.

Though China is still not a global powerhouse in terms of periodicals, circulation of scores of magazines - such as Duzhe, Zhiyin and Family - has surpassed 1 million each, said Shi Feng, president of the China Periodicals Association.

Duzhe, a general interest magazine founded in 1981 in Lanzhou, capital of Gansu Province, reportedly sold a record 10.03 million copies of its April 2006 edition.

Since the 1980s, many world- famous periodicals in science and technology, economics and lifestyle have enjoyed success in China. Famous groups such as International Data Group, Hearst Corporation, McGraw-Hill and Hachette Filipacchi Medias have domestically-published products, such as Trends, Rayli, BusinessWeek and National Geographic.

It is the second time that FIPP has chosen an Asian country to hold the biennial event, with Japan being the host in 1997, said Li Dongdong, vice-minister of GAPP.

(Xinhua News Agency May 16, 2007)