Beijing to build national digital publishing base

Beijing will create a national digital publishing base in its southern Fengtai District, aiming to upgrade its traditional publishing industry.

The construction of the digital publishing base, which consists of several parks covering a total of about 600,000 square meters, will be completed by 2020, according to a strategic framework agreement signed on December 17 by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Press and Publication and the Fengtai District Government.

A total of 400 enterprises are expected to settle in the base, creating an annual output of 50 billion yuan (US$8.1 billion). 50 of them will be well-known companies.

The output of Beijing's digital publishing industry accounts for more than 20 percent of the country's total, Sun Ying, vice director of the bureau, said.

The base will take advantage of the city's rich publishing and media resources to develop e-books, digital magazines and periodicals, digital music, digital video products, Internet games and animation, as well as online education.

China thus far has 12 national digital publishing bases, which have played an important role in spearheading the development of the country's digital publishing industry.