Chen Tong, from the ministry, said meetings would be held to introduce methods that were used to successfully develop genuine products.

A forum about opening audio-video chain stores would also be held.

The ministry is beginning to see positive results against piracy after continuously supporting the development of audio-visual chain stores and supermarkets in the past couple of years.

"We have been taking measures to encourage capital and human resources once involved with piracy to go for genuine recordings," said Liu Yuzhu, director of the ministry's Cultural Market Administration Department.

An overhaul of the Regulation on the Control of Audio-visual Products and changing the administration methods concerning the wholesale, retail, renting and projection of audio-visual products has led to swifter approvals in relation to the retailing and renting of the products.

But start-up requirements such as registered capital and a shop's floor-space have been tightened.

The move was prompted by the sheer number of small audio-visual shops cluttering the market, which tended to sell pirated discs and were difficult to control.

A bigger store is more likely to be in a strong financial situation and better capable of buying and selling authentic recordings.

The measures produced good results as the number of genuine products had increased in recent years, Chen said.

According to official statistics, there are 3,000 chain stores and 50 large supermarkets around the country, serving as major outlets for genuine products, in addition to book stores, department stores and post offices.

The distribution totals of genuine products are rising. Statistics from the State Press and Publication Administration show that the number of original audio products increased by almost 8 per cent from 2000 to last year. The number of video products rose by more than 50 per cent over the same period.

And statistics from the Guangdong audio-visual market show the sales volume of original products distributed last year reached 885 million yuan (US$107 million), which was up almost 46 per cent compared with 2000.

The total for the first four months of this year reached 620 million yuan (US$75 million), which is higher than the final total for 2000.

Vice-Minister of Culture Meng Xiaosi previously said the rate of genuine audio-visual products in the local market would be used in the future to gauge if the situation was improving.

(China Daily August 14, 2002)