​​​Chinese legal and learning institutions are allocating more and more of their budgets toward e-books and digital tools than ever before. This was the theme at this year's Beijing International Book Fair, where more than 200,000 people from over 50 countries are expected to visit this week. It opens today and runs through August 31, 2014.

The Beijing International Book Fair has been a key event in the information industry to Chinese and overseas companies for the last 20 years. It's seen the same changes experienced by the information industry worldwide: digital publishing and technology services have become increasingly important.

"This is a major event for our business in China," said Shasha Chang, CEO of Wolters Kluwer China. "It's an opportunity to raise the profile of the Wolters Kluwer brand among different Chinese media, to showcase our products to potential customers, and improve cooperation with Chinese publishers."

On the first day of the event, Wolters Kluwer announced an agreement with China National Publications Import & Export Group Corporation (CNPIEC) by launching 500 titles for the legal market on their ebook aggregation platform, CNPeReading​. By the end of 2014, CNPIEC hopes to have more than 800 ebooks from Wolters Kluwer available across the legal and tax fields.

CNPeReading is the biggest ebook platform for international content in China, and provides digital content for various field and markets, i.e. legal, tax & accounting, medical, and the financial industries. They also provide e-content for public libraries, university libraries, and research institutions all over China; its electronic platform serves more than 40,000 library customers and over 1 million end-users in China. During the launch, Wolters Kluwer showed the pioneering advantages of e-books and CNPIEC introduced the functional features of CNPeReading.

"There are many reasons why we are pursuing an e-book strategy," shared Christie Wang, Deputy General Manager of CCH, Wolters Kluwer China. "For one, I can say that our clients are shifting their budget from print to online. We see that trend very clearly." Hear more of what Christie has to say, live from the Beijing International Book Fair today, in this short clip.

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