Attending and chairing the Conference were comrades: Tran Thanh Lam, Deputy Head of the Central Propaganda Department; Nguyen Thanh Lam, Deputy Minister of Information and Communications; Pham Minh Tuan, Chairman of the Vietnam Publishing Association, Deputy Editor-in-Chief in charge of Communist Magazine...
In 2023, the publishing industry faces many difficulties. After a year of strong growth (2022), in 2023, in the general economic picture, purchasing power decreased sharply, leading to difficulties for the entire book industry. Statistics from the Department of Publishing, Printing and Distribution show that in the past year, the entire publishing industry produced 33,000 publications with 450 million copies (down 11% in publications and down 23% in copies compared to the same period in 2022).
In addition, the entire publishing industry has made efforts and achieved impressive results. Revenue of publishers is estimated at 3,700 billion VND (up 15.6%). The bright spot of the publishing industry last year was the development of e-books. The number of e-books published during the year reached 4,600 (up 31.4%), bringing the ratio of e-publications/total publications to 15.3%, exceeding the target of 12%.
Comrade Tran Thanh Lam, Deputy Head of the Central Propaganda Department chaired the conference. Photo: Thu Hang
In line with the trend of the times, publishers are actively transforming digitally. To date, 24 publishers have registered to participate in e-publishing, an increase of 5 units compared to 2022. Thus, the number of units confirmed to publish and distribute e-books out of the total number of publishers increased from 33.6% to 42.1%. The publishing industry has also developed a shared e-publishing and distribution platform, with the participation of 23 units.
The publishing industry has piloted the application of AI in publishing activities, such as coordinating with the Information and Communication Publishing House and WAKA Company to deploy ChatGPT to support editorial work at the Truth National Political Publishing House; Building an information portal connecting publishers and press agencies.
Representing the Ministry of Information and Communications, Deputy Minister Nguyen Thanh Lam said that in today's information-saturated society, the urgent need is to turn information into knowledge, and books are always the cradle of knowledge. In the new trend, the publishing industry needs to find its own advantages.
Books today reach the public through many forms such as e-books, audiobooks, videobooks... These types of books are displayed on platforms, reaching readers through a service mechanism, paying. The same book, readers use the same, but have different experiences, different interactions.
Mr. Nguyen Thanh Lam - Deputy Minister of Information and Communications - spoke at the conference. Photo: VT
New types of books are appearing more and more on the market. This is the most vivid and obvious proof of digital transformation in publishing activities. Therefore, the transformation path of publishing units needs to focus on the direction of: innovation and development according to the publishing - technology agency model; producing unique publishing products and distributing multi-platform, multimedia content with the motto of closely following the needs and interests of readers - especially the young generation.
Regarding the application of digital technology, the Deputy Minister of Information and Communications said that it is necessary to use technology, virtual assistants and artificial intelligence (AI) more in publishing. Using AI, controlled input data to shorten the distance and save costs in publishing work.
Deputy Minister Nguyen Thanh Lam said that the governing agencies need to continue to invest more, and publishers need to be more proactive and creative, because "Digital transformation must generate numbers, bringing revenue to the publishing industry".
The Deputy Minister emphasized that the competent authorities should pay attention to and invest in publishing houses to promote the development of reading culture and digital transformation. This will contribute to developing the publishing industry into a modern economic and technological sector. First of all, it is necessary to invest in infrastructure and technical human resources to apply information technology, making e-publishing a spearhead of development.
On behalf of the Organizing Committee, comrade Tran Thanh Lam - Deputy Head of the Central Propaganda Department, presented gifts and flowers to congratulate the publishing house leaders who had retired and transferred jobs. Photo: Thu Hang
In his concluding remarks at the Conference, Comrade Tran Thanh Lam, Deputy Head of the Central Propaganda Department, commended and highly appreciated the achievements of the publishing management agencies and publishers. Comrade Tran Thanh Lam also requested that in the coming time, the agencies continue to improve the Party's leadership capacity and the State's management of the publishing sector, strengthen coordination, and create unity in leadership and direction of publishing activities.
Publishing management agencies perform well their political tasks, lead and direct their affiliated publishing units to focus on research, proactively develop plans and topics, ensure focus and key points; create and innovate forms of publications to create strong spreading power; pay attention to and focus on personnel work, planning, training, fostering, and perfecting the team of publishing house staff and editors in political theory and professional expertise...
At the Conference, on behalf of the Organizing Committee, the Central Propaganda Department presented gifts and flowers to congratulate the publishing house leaders who had retired and transferred jobs.
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