Departments concerned will launch a nationwide campaign to rectify the map market, striving to put an end to maps with political problems in about one year's time and standardize and institutionalize map production and management, according to sources from a teleconference in Beijing on November 3.
The General Office of the State Council lately transmitted a notice on rectifying and normalizing the map market and called on all local departments to fully implement the notice. This notice was issued jointly by the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping, General Administration of Press and Publishing, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, the General Administration of Customs, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
At the teleconference Chen Bangzhu, director of the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping, required all departments of surveying and mapping to join efforts with departments concerned to thoroughly examine their local map markets and investigate and deal with cases of illegal activities. No matter where the cases occur and who and what work units are involved, they must be dealt with resolutely without any appeasement.
In recent years, China has published maps of more than 2,000 kinds, nearly 300 million volumes annually. And the map market has been glutted by high-tech products, including electronic, digital, multimedia, and online maps. While along with the booming map market, some maps with political problems and some illegal maps are still often seen, throwing the map market in a chaotic situation.
(People's Daily November 6, 2001)
