Zhuozhou hosts B2B conference to revitalize publishing industry after summer floods

Zhuozhou city in North China's Hebei province held a business matchmaking conference on Thursday. The conference focused on the high-quality development of the city's printing and publishing industry, in a bid to help related enterprises gain new drivers for growth after the industry was affected by a serious flood disaster that hit the city in August.

The event saw the participation of over 150 upstream and downstream enterprises in the industry, including publishing associations and houses from the province and neighboring Beijing, along with representatives from the governmental organs in Zhuozhou.

They discussed the industry's future development in Zhuozhou, market trends and orders.

Zhuozhou, a county-level city about 70 kilometers southwest of Beijing, is a major hub in northern China for book sales and logistics, and boasts a large number of book warehouses.

In August, many of the warehouses were severely flooded, leaving millions of books soaked.

"In order to accelerate the reconstruction and resumption of work and production for enterprises after the disaster, we have formulated a series of supporting measures tailored to their needs, such as fiscal subsidies, tax deferrals, social security fee reductions, and credit financing, which would be ensured that they can fully enjoy the benefits," said the city's mayor Li Xianfeng.

A total of 38 book publishing and distribution enterprises signed contracts with local industrial parks during the conference, with a rental value of 60 million yuan ($8.2 million) and an additional fixed asset investment of 240 million yuan, according to local government.

It is estimated that this will lead to an increase in annual book sales of 2.6 billion yuan in terms of retail price.