This report covers the market and current state of development of the academic publishing industry in China.
Following China’s WTO entry the PRC has gradually begun opening up the wholesale book sector since January 1, 2003.The total number of academic titles sold into tertiary level educational institutions rose from 16,512 titles in 1995 to 25,857 titles in 2000, while spending on academic books increased in value from RMB 31 million in 1995, to RMB 1,220 million in 2000.
This strong spending growth trend indicates a commitment by government to raise the level of access to textbooks in order to increase the breadth of training in all fields amongst China’s rapidly rising number of students.
In order to better serve the academic community, the whole structure of tertiary education is now undergoing massive reformation, with the focus being on making tertiary education better serve the needs of China’s rapidly growing economy.
This reformation is focusing on providing the country with more skilled workers able to serve the growing need for greater technical expertise in certain key industrial sectors.
It also focuses on providing better research and development facilities that can feed directly into China’s newly developing industries.