In recent years, many printing groups have started joint ventures. As an example, the former Chengdu Military Area Printing Factory, Sichuan Xinhua Color Printing Co. and Jiuxing Printing and Packing Co. Ltd. jointly formed a new printing enterprise, which has become one of the biggest printing companies in Sichuan Province, benefiting from an integration of resources and complementary advantages.

The cooperation between international companies and domestic ones has also drawn much attention. The Beijing-based Beiren Printing Machinery Holdings Ltd. and Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. have established a joint venture in Beijing named Beijing Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Beiren Printing Machineries Co. Ltd. The joint venture manufactures and sells sheet-fed printing machines.

Some experts predict that in five years, China's printing industry will be at the stage of large-scale mergers and acquisitions.

Confidence in potential

Discussing the development trend of the mainland printing industry and its prospects for foreign investment, Tan of the China Printing and Printing Equipment Industry Association pointed out that the fields of package decoration and commodity-related printing will grow most rapidly on China's mainland.

China has over 4 trillion yuan of domestic retail consumer goods and about $500 billion of export commodities that require packaging and packaging printing, according to Tan. He added that there is also an increasing demand for printing all types of high-quality packaging, receipts, certificates, securities, banknotes, self-adhesive labels and advertisements. Thus, China has imported more and more high-tech printing machines in recent years to meet the demand.

Tan believed that this demand will continue to rise. Taking self-adhesive labels as an example, he said the average per-capita demand is 8-14 square meters in the world while in China it is less than 1 square meter. Thus, the market is full of potential.

Many international printing giants also have confidence in the future of China's printing industry.

Andrew Copley, Managing Director and Vice President of Global Sales and Operations for the Kodak Graphic Commu-nications Group, said China is expected to become the second largest printing market in 2010.

Having confidence in their future development in China, some packaging and printing joint ventures have continuously expanded their production in the country. Qingdao Haier & Fungchoi Printing Co. Ltd., a joint-stock printing company with capital from Hong Kong, spent over 12 million yuan last year on a top plate-making machine imported from Germany and is now considering expanding its scale, though the company declined to disclose any details about the expansion now.

Digital printing is thought by the business community to be a "gold mine" in the future. During the World Cup season in June and early July, the Chinese people were excited to see a "real-time" portion of the Italian newspaper Corriere dello Sport, which was actually digitally printed by the Fangzheng Group.

According to Fangzheng, the digital printing of newspapers enables foreigners in China to read the papers of their own countries as soon as they are published. It said it believes that providing timely global newspapers will become a new service in hotels.

In the Chinese market, although the growth rate of digital printing is now lower than that of the printing industry as a whole, the market potential and huge business opportunities offered particularly by the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and the 2010 Shanghai World Expo have attracted many business people.

Yoshikatsu Ota, President of Konica Minolta Business Technologies Inc., said his company will further expand its market scale as the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and the 2010 Shanghai World Expo draw near.

Seeking innovation

In terms of the printing industry, China is a big country but has yet to be a strong one, said Long of the General Administra-tion of Press and Publication.

The Chinese are proud of Bi Sheng's invention of movable clay type in the Northern Song Dynasty over 900 years ago. Will China make further contributions to the printing industry in the near future? How far does China have to go to become a strong country in printing?