Nine commercial publishing organizations in Guangxi Province, including the Guangxi People’s Publishing House and the Lijiang Publishing House, were transformed into limited liability companies on December 22. The Guangxi Publishing Group signed labor employment contracts with workers the next day, and 92% of its workers agreed to sign the new agreements. Business units under the Group will also sign labor employment contract with their workers.

Guangxi Publishing Group was formed on the basis of the Guangxi General Publishing House. In July 2003, the publishing house was made independent from the Guangxi Autonomous Region Press and Publication Administration to separate business operations from administration functions. The publishing house enhanced its operation significantly since, producing 26,916 titles, half of which were re-published, winning many  state and provincial level awards.

Guangxi ranked among the top Chinese publishers in terms of book publishing from 2005 to 2007 and was particularly outstanding in western Chinese provinces. The publishing house has paid an accumulative 536 million yuan (US$78.5 million) in taxes since 2003 and reported pre-tax profits of 1.01 billion yuan (US$147 million).

According to an initial plan, the Group will try to boost its value output by more than 2.5 billion yuan (US$366 million) in the first year, or to achieve a minimum 20% growth in business; business revenues are expected to rise 18% or 1.6 billion yuan (US$234 million). The value of state-owned equity to reach 110% of the opening value; and returns on net assets should reach 9%. It plans to quadruple its per capita value output by 2012 and to expand overall value output by nearly 5 billion yuan (US$732 million) and to become one of the top 10 publishing groups in China.

The Guangxi Publishing Group will continue to optimize its editorial, publishing and distribution operations in 2010 and focus on promising segments with capital support as a way to promote the rapid growth of its core business. The Group also plans to spearhead into other sectors to widen its business spectrum by about 500,000 million yuan (US$78 million). It also plans to renovate the traditional distribution model in 2010.