The Beijing Municipal Government plans to allocate 100 million yuan ($14.3 million) to support physical bookstores in the city. The fund will mainly be used to reduce their rent from March to June.
Affected by the novel coronavirus epidemic, a large number of bookstores are finding it difficult to reopen due to lack of customers. According to a report, during the Spring Festival in 2020, over 99 percent of physical bookstores did not have a regular income. In this situation, they need to devise new strategy to survive. At the same time, assistance from the government can help them significantly in overcoming difficulties.
For bookstores, rent is the largest expenditure when they remain closed. That is also the focus of the supportive policy announced by the government. It is hoped that the subsidy will boost bookstores' confidence after the epidemic.
In recent years, brick-and-motar bookstores have been hit hard by e-commerce and e-reading tools. Besides helping the operation of bookstores, support from the government can also encourage the public to buy and read more books.
(This is an edited excerpt of an article originally published in Beijing Youth Daily on March 2)
