Of the top 100 printing companies in China, 19, including the top three, are based in Shenzhen, which has become a major export-oriented printing center, with exports accounting for 50 percent of the annual output value. Shenzhen is playing a key role in promoting the Pearl River Delta area as an international printing base and is expected to create an output value of over 60 billion yuan by 2010. Currently, more than 60 percent of high-grade printed matter, 85 percent of telephone directories and 90 percent of the catalogs for auctioned products are printed in Shenzhen.

China has developed three printing bases, including the Pearl River Delta, Yangtze River Delta and the Bohai Sea region, where many large-scale printing companies are located.

The Pearl River Delta area, led by Shenzhen, developed quickly in recent years, with the geographic advantage of being adjacent to Hong Kong, a world-famous printing base, and now the annual output value of the area is 60 billion yuan.

The development of the printing industry in the Yangtze River Delta area, led by Shanghai, has been fueled by a dynamic economy and the proliferation of foreign companies in surrounding areas. The annual output value of the printing industry in the city of Shanghai and Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces exceeds 20 billion yuan each.

The Bohai Sea rim region, led by Beijing, has the most dynamic economy in north China, which, together with Beijing's role as a national publishing center, has helped the region become a printing base in north China.

Over a decade ago, China's printing industry was dominated by state financing, but now the investors are more diversified. In 2005, of the top 100 printing companies in the country, 62 had foreign financing, 18 were owned by the state, two were privately owned and 18 were joint stock companies.

In 2002, China started the reform of government departments. As a result, publishing houses, Xinhua bookstores and printing plants were no longer under the administration of the General Administration of Press and Publication. Instead, the China Publishing Group and China Printing Group have been formed, which are subject to the leadership of the Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, respectively. Following that, the press and publication bureaus at provincial and municipal levels carried out a similar reform, making the printing industry more market-oriented.

Foreign capital emerges

With China's accession to the World Trade Organization, international capital increasingly entered the country's printing industry. Statistics show that China approves the establishment of nearly 100 foreign printing companies every year, with the total number in the country now exceeding 2,000.