Young readers take part in a book launch at the National Library of Vietnam. (Photo: Minh Thu/Vietnam+) Hanoi (VNA) - The Vietnam Book and Reading Culture Day is an occasion to promote reading and spread knowledge, so needs to be held in various forms to arouse a love for books and raise awareness about a culture of reading in the community.
The opening ceremony of the second Vietnam Book and Reading Culture Day - 2023 will take place on April 21 at the Thua Thien-Hue History Museum and include a range of activities aimed at promoting a culture of reading.
Mr. Nguyen Nguyen, Director of the Authority of Publication, Printing and Distribution at the Ministry of Information and Communications and Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Publishing Association, told the VietnamPlus electronic newspaper about the new features in the largest book fair of the year.
Arousing a love for books
- Can you tell us why the Ministry of Information and Communications choose Hue as the venue for the main activities in this year’s Vietnam Book and Reading Culture Day?
Mr. Nguyen Nguyen: The opening ceremony of the first Vietnam Book and Reading Culture Day last year took place in Ho Chi Minh City. Among the impressive numbers were revenue of nearly 6 billion VND, nearly 1 million readers attending the event, and more than 200,000 copies of books sold in just a few days.
In the spirit of spreading the value of books to all regions around the country, this year the Organising Committee chose Hue because the city is one of the country’s centres of learning and also a place where national culture and identity converge.
In addition to Hue, activities within the second Vietnam Book and Reading Culture Day are being simultaneously held in the country’s 63 cities and provinces, contributing to the development of culture and a studious spirit among the people of Hue in particular and the country as a whole in general.
Developing a multi-platform publishing industry to promote a culture of reading. In this photo: Mr. Nguyen Nguyen, Director of the Authority of Publication, Printing and Distribution. (Photo: PV/Vietnam+) This year’s event has two main themes: “Awareness - Innovation - Creativity”, and “Books for me, for you.”
The goal of this year’s book festival is that books will express innovation, bring creativity, and create motivation for the country’s development. The publishing industry itself also aims to meet needs in the innovation and creativity being seen in all aspects of life.
The theme “Books for me, for you” indicates that the value of books not only lies in good content but in being popular for everyone.
- During the period fighting COVID-19, the National Online Book Fair on Book365.vn operated quite effectively. Can you tell us how the model will work this year?
Mr. Nguyen Nguyen: After 3 years of operations, the online bookstore has created good reading habits, helping relevant units actively participate. This year, the Information and Communication Publishing House in cooperation with the National Political Publishing House and other units will continue to manage and operate Book365.vn from April 17.
As for the Department of Publication, Printing and Distribution, we will always accompany units to continue their activities. I believe that a variety of approaches will make it easier for readers to find books.
Promoting e-book publishing
- This year’s Vietnam Book and Reading Culture Day continues to address the issue of digital transformation in e-book publishing and development. What solutions are available to take on this matter?
Mr. Nguyen Nguyen: E-books are now an inexorable trend, and Vietnam’s e-book market has made strong progress over recent years. There are now more than 15 million e-book users, equal to 35 million copies of books read, an increase of 59% compared to 2021. More than 30% of publishers have participated in electronic publishing, while the number of e-books also accounts for over 10% of the total number of publications.
However, the development of e-books has not been commensurate with the potential and resources of the industry, focusing only on the audio book market. The publishing industry must promote the development of electronic publishing in the future.
To do that, there are 4 very important matters.
Firstly, it is necessary to raise awareness among publishers themselves and change reading habits. I think this is of prime importance.
Secondly, there must be mechanisms and policies to encourage e-book publishing. The other two conditions are related to human resources and technological aspects.
Developing a multi-platform publishing industry to promote a culture of reading. In this photo: Discount book fairs attract a lot of young people. (Photo: Minh Thu/Vietnam+) - The development of a culture of reading is showing encouraging signs, as total revenue in Vietnam’s publishing industry reached nearly 4,000 billion VND in 2022 and this was the first year that the target of 6 books per person per year was achieved. What are your thoughts on this?
Mr. Nguyen Nguyen: Looking back over the past 10 years, we can see that a culture of reading has been developing in Vietnam. However, this has yet to live up to expectations.
The proportion of textbooks and reference books in this rate is still high, at about 40%, while in developed countries the figure is only about 30%. We therefore need to promote reading to access knowledge by choice, not just within compulsory curricula.
We can learn and apply what Japan has done to revive a culture of reading. Japanese consider reading to be the foundation of a spiritual culture; build a culture of reading in association with the preservation of the nation’s language and writing; associate a culture of reading with the development of publishing; ensure a culture of reading is based on habit building; and make a culture of reading the responsibility of society as a whole.
- The problem of fake books is becoming increasingly serious, especially in the context of the development of social networks. Do you have any solutions to address this issue?
Mr. Nguyen Nguyen: This is a problem that has caused headaches for the publishing industry for many years. Fake books have become increasingly “popular” thanks to digital platforms.
There remain certain legal gaps as well as a serious lack of forces in charge of fighting the problem.
We are working to create channels to connect directly with platforms and to receive reports of fake books as quickly as possible. When we receive information on fake books or illegal books, we can apply certain measures in the same way YouTube does.
We will also strengthen inspections, checking all e-commerce channels that participate in a book release. This will help units do better, while also detecting mistakes and strictly handling them.
- Thank you very much!
