An open book market
New regulations finally allow FIEs to engage in the master distribution of Chinese publications and expand the scope of foreign investor participation by lowering entry thresholds and eliminating term of operation restrictions
Issue: July/August 2011
Keywords (click to search):
publications
Jun He
publishing
books
China has gradually opened up the retail and wholesale of books, newspapers and periodicals to foreign investors since 2003. However, the market share of the foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) in the Chinese publications market is not very big, nor have foreign investors swarmed into the market as originally anticipated before China’s entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO). There are multiple causes for this, and the primary ones are that China has only opened up the wholesale and retail of publications, and has imposed a number of entry thresholds upon foreign investors in such respects as registered capital and employee qualifications. Furthermore, China had refrained from opening up the “master distribution” of publications in which foreign investors were most interested. In the Foreign Investment Industrial Guidance Catalogue (外商投资产业指导目录) (the Catalogue) as amended in 2007, the master distribution of books, newspapers and periodicals is also included in the prohibited category that does...
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