FLTRP officially established the China Theme Editorial Department on March 1st , 2017. FLTRP President Cai Jianfeng says that the Department is the fruit of Bulgaria Publishing Center, a subproject of the “Silk Book Project” organized by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television. President Cai also says that the Department is FLTRP`s first oversea branch among all the Belt and Road countries. “This is a sign which indicates that FLTRP is going to be more influential in Central and Eastern Europe”, says President Cai.

In the past three years, FLTRP has been actively carrying out the Belt and Road Initiative and is achieving significant progress. Up to now, FLTRP has established partnership with 32 countries from the Belt and Road area. At the same time, FLTRP undertook four translation projects organized by the government, including that of China-Albania, China-Sri Lanka, China-Portugal, and China-Israel.

It was after numerous investigations and surveys that FLTRP made the decision of establishing its very first oversea branch in Bulgaria. In June, 2016, President Cai led a visiting delegation to Bulgaria in order to get a deep insight of the Chinese learning market and China theme publishing there. Through this visit, FLTRP established connections with the Embassy of China in Bulgaria, the Confucius Institute at the University of Sofia, the Bulgarian Publishers Association, and some Bulgarian presses. A publishing agreement of The Bulgarian Nation: Imagining and Re-imagining was then signed.

With the help of the said achievements, on August 26th 2016, the Agreement of co-building the China Theme Editorial Department in Bulgaria was signed by FLTRP and Iztok-Zapad, a Bulgarian publisher.

With the establishment of this Department, a localization strategy was thereafter developed. Sinologists are organized by the Department for selecting books while the Department cooperates with the Confucius Institute at the University of Sofia for developing the publishing market and expanding FLTRP`s influence in Bulgaria. Besides, both parties will work together on propelling digital reading and online publishing market, with the website of bookworld.cnbg.eu as a starting platform.

The establishment of the China Theme Editorial Department is the first step of FLTRP building oversea centers. In the future, FLTRP will focus on publishing, education, and cultural and creative products. By making the Department the pivot for FLTRP expanding its business in Central and Eastern Europe, more books on China theme will be popularized.