Senior Party Leader Li Changchun encouraged domestic publishers to actively explore international market when inspecting a large state-owned publishing house yesterday.

"China will need more publishers with multinational business and international influence," said Li, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, in his visit to the China Publishing Group (CPG).

The company now owns 29 publishing houses including the renowned Commercial Press, SDX Joint Publishing Company and Rong Bao Zhai, the 300-year-old gallery of antique art works.

It also operates 44 magazines and three daily newspapers as well as holding a stake in more than 80 companies.

The CPG should take its own advantages and seize the opportunities to reform itself to be a modern publishing house. It should expand new businesses while consolidating traditional ones, Li said.

Domestic publishers should step forward into the international market, improve their international competitiveness and work with foreign counterparts, Li said.

He also asked them to produce more publications that benefited the society and meet ordinary readers' interests.