Think London brings leading Chinese publishing group to the capital

Apr 18, 2007

Think London, the foreign direct investment agency for London, welcomed the China Youth Publishing Group (CYPG) to the capital.

Think London, the foreign direct investment agency for London, welcomed the China Youth Publishing Group (CYPG) to the capital at a launch ceremony yesterday evening. CYPG, one of China’s top publishing groups, opened their first global office in London as part of the company’s international expansion plans.

CYP International Ltd. will act as a global hub in the capital, helping the company gain international publishing information, publish books in the UK for distribution in the international market and bring foreign copyright and foreign language books to China. CYPI will provide training for publishing and design talent from China in the UK, and operate as an exhibition and copyright agency.

Jingyan Zhang, president of CYPG, said, “London provides us with the optimum platform for our global operations. As an international centre of publishing and a beacon for the creative industries, London is a stimulating, fast-paced environment and we are excited to become part of it.”

Michael Charlton, Chief Executive of Think London, which together with UK Trade & Investment helped the company set up in the capital, said: “I am delighted to welcome CYP International to London. It is the first Chinese publisher to set up business in our city, thereby taking their leadership of the rapidly globalising Chinese publishing industry to London, one of the world’s global cities and leading publishing markets”.

As one of China’s top publishing groups, CYPG currently publishes more than 600 titles and ten journals a year, including the Youth Digest which has a monthly circulation of 2,500,000.

By establishing a presence in London, CYPI has joined the ranks of worldwide publishing houses such as Macmillan, Penguin and the Pearson Group. The UK publishing market, which accounts for 20.1% of the value of European publishing [1], is forecast to increase by 8.6% to £17 billion ($33.9 billion) by 2011, compared to 2006.

Chinese foreign direct investment is increasingly important to the capital. The UK is by far the largest recipient of Chinese Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Europe, with London accounting for nearly one third of all Chinese investment into the UK, and 15% of investment in Europe [2].

[1] Statistics taken from Datamonitor, November 2006
[2] Statistics from Think London