China s Printing Industry: Present State and Opportunities

Transcription

1 China s Printing Industry: Present State and Opportunities Pu Jialing Vice President Beijing Institute of Graphic Communication (Sydney, May 5, 2011) Dear FAGAT colleagues, Distinguished guests, Friends, Ladies and gentlemen, It is a great pleasure for me to attend the 12 th annual meeting of the Asian Printing Technology Forum now held in Sydney, a pleasant and beautiful international city. Please allow me, on behalf of the Printing Technology Association of China and the printing community in China, to extend warm congratulations on the holding of this annual meeting, to express sincere greetings to my friends from the printing and related industries in the member countries, and to express heartfelt thanks to the Printing Industries Association of Australia for hosting this annual meeting. In addition to briefing each other on the latest developments of the printing industry in their countries, the forum participants will also focus deliberations on the environmental issue of the printing industry. This is a full indication of the interest of the participants in how the printing industry will emphasize environmental protection and pursue harmonious development. I am convinced that this annual meeting will have positive impacts on the mutual understanding between the printing communities in member countries, on the technological advance of their printing industries and on the mutually beneficial cooperation between the printing communities. Now I wish to share some of my views on the current state and future trend of the development of China s printing industry in conjunction with the theme of this annual meeting. First, I want to talk about the general situations and basic features of China s printing industry. The printing industry in China has withstood the severe test of the global financial crisis. On the one hand, the industry has continued to maintain a fairly fast growth. On the other, the financial crisis has made more prominent the internal structural contradictions arising from the past fast growth. This indicates the mode of development must be changed and a strategic transition must be pursued. In 2009, China had 101,566 printing enterprises, which employed 3.78 million people. The industry s fixed assets totaled 800 billion yuan, its annual output value was billion yuan, its tax payment was 60.3 billion yuan, and its export trade reached billion yuan. Compared with the previous year, the number of printing enterprises rose 4.6% and their total output value rose 9.1%. The geographic profile of the printing industry was basically rational, with the Bohai Rim mainly specialized in publication printing, the Yangtze River Delta in packaging and decoration printing, and the Pearl River Delta in foreign trade printing. At present, the Pearl River Delta accounts for 80% of the export trade of China s printing industry. These three industrial belts have fully tapped their regional advantages and promoted the development of China s printing industry. 1

2 Overall, China s printing industry has demonstrated the following basic features in development: One, industrial growth poles have become diversified. The history of China s printing industry over the past three decades since the country began to reform and open up indicates that the Pearl River Delta was once a powerful growth engine. The westward relocation of Hong Kong printing enterprises and the southward flow of books printing business from the north of the country have brought about printing prosperity in the Pearl River Delta, which in turn produced a demonstration effect on other parts of the country. But since the beginning of the new century, more regions have been growing in strength and become new growth poles as a result of the all-round integration with international markets and the rapid growth of the domestic demand. This development trend indicates that China s printing industry will have to face an even wider market space. Seeing this trend of growth pole diversification, competitive printing enterprises have been actively establishing their presence in all these growth-pole regions in order to seize market opportunities. While Guangdong, Shanghai and Beijing are naturally the first choice for these enterprises, they have also shown great interests in the central, west and northeast regions. Two, industrial structure is undergoing positive changes. Against the backdrop of changing the mode of industrial development and promoting industrial transformation and upgrading, some newspaper printing enterprises in Hunan, Zhejiang, Hubei and other places have been expanding their commercial printing market in face of their shrinking market shares in newspaper printing, so as to avoid the unfavorable impacts arising from the integration of newspapers and networks. Some larger enterprises specialized in the printing of commercial notes, such as Fujian Hongbo Printing Co., Ltd., the Shanghai Security Printing Co., Ltd., the Donggang Security Printing Co., Ltd., and the Shanghai Aviation Printing Co., Ltd and etc., have taken advantage of their advanced technologies and expanded their business operations into the production of RFID electronic labels. In the wave of strategic industrial transfers, the enterprises specialized in packaging printing have become hot sectors of investment in Xinjiang, Chongqing, Sichuan and Guizhou. Some OEM enterprises are also being built there. Three, new types of printing, especially digital printing have good indicated promising prospects. As a result of the application of digital technology and the development of IT industry, printing has broken the long-established boundary. While new forms of printing are appearing, the chain of the printing industry has extended to creative design and market service. In 2009, some traditional printing enterprises in China tried to create new business opportunities. For example, they vigorously promoted the e-business transaction model and introduced web-to-print solutions. They took advantage of color standards and information technology to offer international-standard designs and services for foreign brands. They imported digital printing equipment, conducted researches on the application of digital printing and entered the domain of personalized, on-demand and variable data printing. They developed green printing and corporate management informatization. In 2009, 78 enterprises were specialized in digital printing. They accounted for 0.08% of all printing enterprises and represented a 41.82% growth over the 55 enterprises in Also in the year, a total of 1,431 digital printing machines were installed, an increase of 45.87% over the 981 installations in By way of its unique advantage, digital printing plays unique roles in printing on demand. In particular, when the Internet continues to expand its coverage and when digital printing technology is combined with network technology, web-to-print will score an astronomical development. The print-on-demand market arising from digital printing will become a tempting industry. Four, government has introduced policies to support technological innovation and development. In 2

3 August, the Chinese government promulgated the Plan for the Rejuvenation of Cultural Industries, which explicitly supports the innovation and development of the printing and reproduction industries. In September 2010, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the General Administration of Press and Publication of the People s Republic of China signed the Agreement on the Strategic Cooperation in Green Printing. Besides, a host of policy measures have been introduced to support the development of a green, creative and harmonious printing industry. They include the formulation and promulgation of the printing environment signs and standards, the improvement of the green printing assessment systems, the popularization of the green printing standards and the intensification of policy support for enterprises to pursue green printing. While having made the above achievements, we have also realized that China s printing industry faces prominent problems and contradictions in the era of transitoin. The level of industrial concentration is low, large enterprises are less competitive while small and medium-sized ones are not specialized, and the product structures are similar. The corporate labor productivity is low and the innovation capacity is weak when compared with their counterparts in developed countries. The quality of the industry is not high as a whole and the skilled personnel are insufficient, generating obstacles to the long-term development of the printing industry. China still has a long way to go before the industry becomes internationally competitive. Next, I want to talk about the development opportunities for China s printing industry. The year 2011 is a crucial year for China to maintain fast and steady economic development and change the mode of economic development. The just-concluded two conferences (namely the conference of the National People s Congress and the conference of the Chinese People s Political Consultative Conference) have paid high attention to the international community. The National People s Congress adopted the Report on Government Work and the 5-year Plan for Economic and Social Development made by Premier Jiabao Wen. As the program of action for the next five years, the Plan has 24 main indicators. In addition to the 7% economic growth rate, other indicators mainly cover restructuring, science and technology, education, resources, environment and people s life. The plan also contains major policy measures to ensure faster and better development of Chinese economy and society. Accordingly, China s printing industry will have more development opportunities in the course of serving the economic and social development. According to the Plan for the Rejuvenation of Cultural Industries promulgated by the Chinese government in August 2009, the printing industry must develop high-tech printing and special printing, and build several advanced printing and reproduction bases. The industry must speed up the construction of major industrial projects that have demonstration effects and play driving roles, cultivate core enterprises, expedite the construction of industrial parks and bases and many industrial demonstration bases. The government must increase inputs and drastically increase central fiscal support for the special fund for the development of cultural industries, implement tax policies, increase financial support, and establish investment funds for cultural industries. In compiling the 12 th Five-year Plan for the development of the printing industry, the relevant departments of the Chinese government emphasized that the change of the development mode must become the main thrust in building a green and environment-friendly printing industry and in making China s printing industry more competitive. In order to achieve these goals, the printing and related industries in China will focus efforts on the following six areas: 3

4 First, they will implement the digital printing and printing digitization project. The project includes the application and demonstration of content databases, the R&D of the CTP technologies, including equipment and plates, the research, application and demonstration of digitized printing, production and management process, the R&D of the key digital control technology for high-performance printing equipment, the development of the digital technology for Chinese font database, and the construction of the demonstration base of the development and industrialization of the key production technologies for nano-plate making. Second, they will implement the project of establishing environmental system for printing and developing new technologies for green printing. This project includes two aspects. On one hand, the government departments must formulate plans for industrial macro-regulation to adjust and optimize industrial structure, set up strict environmental standards and establish environmental monitoring system for the printing industry, eliminate the production capacities noted for outdated mode of production, serious environmental pollution and high energy consumption, and introduce technological standards for ink and printing products carrying environmental logos. First of all, they must introduce green printing approval system for teaching materials, children s reading materials, government procured items and the soft packaging of food and medicine. On the other, they must accelerate R&D of printing machines with broadband satellite, high-speed and flexible plating, the industrialization of the green environment-friendly flexible printing plating materials, the research, development and industrialization of water ink and core resin, the development and application of the environment-friendly pre-coating membrane technology, and the construction of key laboratories for environment-friendly printing technologies and industries. Third, they will optimize corporate structures and cultivate core printing enterprises with international influence and brand-name that are internationally competitive. The main measures include: they must encourage and support core enterprises to conduct merger and acquisition, diversify production and operation, strengthen market service, and develop printing-related production and services including content assets, creative design, information service, domestic and foreign markets, and etc.; they must guide and support small and medium-sized enterprises to pursue specialization and create international printing brands; they must establish mechanisms for the elimination of outdated printing production capacities so that the printing enterprises noted for outdated technology and equipment and serious pollution can quit from markets according to law. Fourth, they will change the traditional mode of printing operation and boost the market competitiveness of enterprises. First, these enterprises must cooperate closely with content industries and develop demonstrative databases for content assets. Next, they must vigorously develop creative printing. Third, they must emphasize customer service and use digital network technology to establish market service systems for operations and sales and establish modern logistics systems so that the printing industry can develop into a modern service industry. Fifth, they will train well-qualified skilled personnel for printing. One, they should actively import, attract and train leading personnel for the development of printing technologies and enhance the industry s innovation capacity. Two, they should vigorously carry out vocational education and skill training, organize national skill competitions so as to improve the job skills and qualifications of those working in the printing industry. 4

5 Sixth, they will strengthen the cultural construction of the printing enterprises and create a harmonious printing industry, to which properly handling the external and internal relations of the printing industry is imperative. Externally, we must promote the coordinated development among the related industries, such as printing, publishing, distribution, advertising, media and the upper streams of printing equipment and materials. Internally, we must strengthen the construction of the good-faith system of the printing industry, standardize the order of the printing market, and create a market environment in favor of the industry s development. In particular, we must practice the human-centered development concept so that those working in the printing industry can have a harmonious, pleasant and inspiring working environment and can truly become the masters of their enterprises. Ladies and gentlemen: Friendship can only deepen through exchange, and wisdom can only elevate through collision. We sincerely hope that the representatives from all member countries will focus on the theme of this annual meeting and have wide-ranging exchanges and far-reaching discussions so that we can come up with fine ideas to benefit the sustained development of the printing industry in the Asia-Pacific region and the rest of the world and we can promote development through steady growth and achieve win-win results through closer cooperation. In November this year, All-in-Print, one of the most important printing shows in China will be held in Shanghai, China. We warmly welcome all our friends to this event and look forward to seeing you all in Shanghai. In conclusion, I wish the 12 th annual meeting of the Asian Printing Technology Forum a great success! And I wish all our FAGAT s colleagues and participant happiness, good health and a pleasant stay. Thanks! 5