From 1992, China's advertising industry has reported an annual growth rate of 31.48 percent in business turnover, which stood at 107.87 billion yuan (12.98 billion US dollars) in 2003, or 0.92 percent of the country's GDP.

By late 2003, China had 66,400 advertising companies with the number of their employees exceeding 870,000, according to the Advertising Supervision and Administration Department under the country's General Administration for Industry and Commerce.

The number of advertising companies around China has grown annually by 19.66 percent in the past 12 years since 1992, with their employees rising by 16.28 percent, noted the department.

But China is in dire need of big-size advertising companies andprofessionals, said Wang Jinjie, deputy department director, warning that his country's advertising industry will face fierce challenges from overseas counterparts along with the further opening of China's advertising market to overseas investors.

To fulfill its commitment to the WTO, China allowed in 2003 overseas investors to jointly fund advertising businesses in the country, and will permit the establishment of ad firms wholly owned by overseas investors as from 2005.

Source: Xinhua