Vietnam Publishing Association proposes to organize ASEAN book award

On the morning of September 15, the Vietnam Publishing Association coordinated with the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee to organize the annual conference of the Executive Committee of the ASEAN Book Publishers Association (ABPA).

Attending the conference were delegations of ABPA member countries and representatives of domestic agencies and units such as: Central Propaganda Department, Ministry of Information and Communications, Vietnam Publishing Association, Department of Information and Communications (TT&TT) of Ho Chi Minh City...

Speaking at the conference, Mr. Lam Dinh Thang - Director of the Department of Information and Communications of Ho Chi Minh City - expressed his honor when Ho Chi Minh City was chosen as the host of the Annual Conference of the Executive Committee of the Southeast Asian Publishing Association 2023.

The Director of the Department of Information and Communications of Ho Chi Minh City affirmed that the city's leaders always pay attention to reading culture, creating the best conditions for people to access books and newspapers, and enrich their knowledge through reading.

"Many works on reading culture have been invested in and built, notably the Ho Chi Minh City Book Street. These activities have contributed to promoting the city's publishing industry to grow well in recent times.

We are deeply aware that investing in reading culture is investing in human culture. Ho Chi Minh City is committed to continuing to invest in this field," said Mr. Lam Dinh Thang.

Mr. Pham Minh Tuan - Chairman of Vietnam Publishing Association - delivered the opening speech at the conference (Photo: Bich Phuong).

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pham Minh Tuan - Chairman of the Vietnam Publishing Association, rotating Chairman of ABPA - expressed his joy that Vietnam is part of the community that has stood side by side for the past 18 years and holds the role of rotating chairman for the 2022-2023 term.

"The Association initially met the needs of exchange and cooperation between member countries. The Association became a channel for information exchange, sharing new policies of each country's publishing industry, as well as sharing experiences and good practices, promoting the development of reading culture.

Through that, members have the opportunity to learn from each other and customize the application to suit the specific circumstances of each country," said Mr. Pham Minh Tuan.

At the conference, representatives of the Publishing Associations of ABPA member countries reported on the publishing situation in their countries. Through this, the countries reviewed the current situation, exchanged experiences, and proposed solutions to strengthen cooperation in the publishing sector in the Southeast Asian region, especially in the context of digital transformation and increasingly deep international integration.

According to statistics, the publishing industry of many countries in the region has declined due to the impact of Covid-19, facing many problems to solve. Despite the difficulties, some countries are still proactive, making efforts to develop, promote reading culture, develop e-publishing, contributing to the modernization of the publishing industry of the countries.

Representative of Singapore delegation presented report (Photo: Bich Phuong).

Mr. Nguyen Nguyen - Director of the Department of Publishing, Printing and Distribution - presented the report of the Vietnam Publishing Association.

Accordingly, Vietnam currently has 57 publishing houses, over 2,000 legal entities trading books, and 13,000 book distribution points nationwide. The Vietnamese publishing industry receives attention from the Party and the State, and has a complete legal system to meet its operations.

In recent years, the Vietnamese publishing industry has faced many difficulties and challenges in competing with audiovisual media, but has still made progress, with significant contributions from the Vietnam Publishing Association.

In 2022, Vietnam will have 33,000 published books, 539 million copies of books distributed, an increase of 54% compared to the previous year. The total revenue of the publishing industry in 2022 is 4,000 billion VND.

As the rotating President of ABPA for the 2022-2023 term, the Vietnam Publishing Association also made 3 main proposals, including:

- Continue to research and implement the "One ASEAN" initiative, promote exchanges between publishers of different countries, learn from experiences, exchange copyrights in the region, turn the region into a publishing center, and gradually reach the world.

- Establish a copyright center under ABPA to introduce books from publishers of member associations, contribute to promoting intra-bloc copyright transactions and share information to promptly handle copyright violations.

- Organize the ASEAN Book Awards, in which the Jury (chairmen of ABPA member publishing associations) will give opinions on the principles, regulations and criteria for selecting books written on ASEAN topics (in English or local languages ​​with English translation).

Representatives of Thailand and Malaysia supported Vietnam's "One ASEAN" proposal and proposed the initiative to establish an ASEAN Copyright Fair. These will be activities for member countries to cooperate more closely in the region.

Delegations from other ABPA member countries also raised a number of challenges that the regional publishing industry faces when organizing the ASEAN book awards, of which the biggest barrier is language because each country uses its own language.

The Singaporean delegation said that Southeast Asia has no shortage of writers who are capable of being nominated for the Nobel Prize and that ABPA could learn from the Nobel Prize model. Countries need to focus resources and show determination to organize a regional book award.

To celebrate the Conference, Ho Chi Minh City Book Street coordinated with publishers to organize a book exhibition about President Ho Chi Minh and Party and State leaders from September 14 to 16.

The exhibition displays about 100 Vietnamese, foreign and bilingual books, divided into 3 groups: Ho Chi Minh Book Space; books by General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong translated into 7 languages; books by Party and State leaders.

In addition, ABPA members also participated in some sideline activities to better understand Vietnamese culture and publishing industry such as: Visiting Ben Nha Rong relic, Ho Chi Minh City Book Street, Phuong Nam Bookstore system, Fahasa Bookstore system...

Source link: https://dantri.com.vn/van-hoa/hoi-xuat-ban-viet-nam-de-xuat-to-chuc-giai-thuong-sach-asean-20230915105740691.htm