The State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television ("SAPPRFT") has recently released the Guiding Opinions on Accelerating Developing Think Tanks for the Press and Publication Industry (the "Opinions").
The Opinions propose to focus on creating a group of industry think tanks with relatively huge popularity, manufacturing a batch of high-quality and landmark think tank products for service sectors, nurturing a strong team that remains committed to the correct political direction and boasts relatively high-level theories, the rich spirit of innovation and a reasonable structure, and is made up of experts specialized in studies of public policies and consultancy of issues existent in the industry. To this end, the Opinions lay down major tasks in six respects, including "enhancing the service capacity of professional think tanks", "encouraging mainstream press and publication entities to create media-oriented think tanks" and "encouraging leading enterprises and social groups in the industry to initiate private industry think tanks". Moreover, the Opinions specify that a series of research and development programs and application studies, targeted at key problems, common issues and core technologies, will be organized, with the focus on the development trend of industry technologies, optimization and upgrading of the industry, and integrated development of the emerging publication segment and the traditional publication industry.