China's publishing industry should improve the quantity of exported books

China has increased its number of exporting copyrights from 800 in 2003 to over 2570 in 2007.

The People's Daily published an article saying the increase is a good signal to the Chinese publishing industry, but pointed out the structure of copyright trading is un-balanced.

In 2007, 70 percent of imported books from some developed countries mainly deal with those countries' advanced technologies and contemporary Literature.

But the majority of Chinese exported books are confined to limited topics including Chinese traditional culture, tourism, traditional Chinese medicine and language teaching.

While these exported books only take 1 percent of market share in western countries, imported books account for 20 percent of the domestic book market.

The article suggests publishers should export more books introducing modern China and its fruitful developments to the world.

Meanwhile, apart from government's supported policies, non-government organizations such as academic institutes and publishers should act positively to help various Chinese books go abroad.

By doing so, the article noted that China's publishing industry can be upgraded; at the same time, present both a traditional and modern China to the world.