Dutch publisher Wolters Kluwer has been approved to open up China’s first foreign-operated bookstore for professional publications, according to the Financial Times (via Forbes.) The company, in partnership with local firm China Law Press, will sell a range of sector-specific publications mainly to legal, accounting and medical professionals in China through the new store, slated to open its doors in Beijing in October.
“We’re fragmented in the way we distribute at the moment. We can’t have that direct (customer) relationship here and that’s one of the challenges for foreign publishers,” said Matthew Sullivan, managing director of CCH – the Wolters Kluwer unit that will operate the store. This is just another example of how China is opening itself up to the global publishing market, after HarperCollins and Penguin announced plans to sell select products in the country.