A wave of consolidation in China's book industry has spread to the capital as 12 major Beijing-based publishing houses and distribution companies joined to form the China Publishing Group yesterday.

The dozen include some of the nation's most prestigious publishers and book traders such as the People's Publishing House, the People's Literature Publishing House, the Commercial Press and the Xinhua Bookstore Head Office.

About 10 similar publishing groups have been launched in places with a prosperous publishing sector such as Shanghai, Guangdong and Liaoning, as the industry braced itself for foreign competition that comes with China's World Trade Organization membership.

The nation promised to gradually open up its book distribution sector to foreign companies under its WTO entry terms, which means the most immediate challenge for publishers is about their efficiency in distribution.

A board of management will control the giant group.

Nie Zhenning, vice-chairman of the board, said the group plans to complete regrouping of its assets, worth 5 billion yuan (US$600 million) at present, in two or three years.

He also said the company's priority is the formation of its distribution arm, to be based on the Xinhua Bookstore Head Office, China National Publishing Industry Trade Corp, and China National Publications Import and Export Corp.

Nie said sales of the group's subsidiary companies totalled 2.5 billion yuan (US$300 million) last year.

He refused to disclose figures concerning profits of the subsidiaries. But he said: "Each of them is a net profit earner."

(China Daily April 10, 2002)