Jan. 5 – The General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) is set to issue guidelines to encourage more private companies to enter the publishing industry.

Xinhua reports that private companies will be allowed to publish books on science and technology, finance and economy, supplementary materials to textbooks, music and arts, and children’s books. Companies can provide content in cooperation or being a unit of state-run publishers.

The agency is also setting guidelines to support and open the overseas publishing market to private companies. China wants to develop huge publishing businesses with annual revenues of more than RMB10 billion within three to five years.

Currently, China has 958 publishers of books and electronic products with 9,549 magazines and 1,943 newspapers. The industry is forecast to reach RMB1 trillion for 2009.