A book event at Book Pedestrian Street in downtown HCM City. (Source: VNA) HCM City (VNS/VNA) – Ho Chi Minh City’s authorities are promoting readingculture in the community through a series of new programmes organised thisyear.
Tu Luong, Deputy Directorof the city’s Department of Information and Communications, saidthat three city-based publishing houses would give booksto cultural houses in the five outlying districts of Hoc Mon, Binh Chanh,Cu Chi, Nha Be and Can Gio at the end of this month.
Besides working withpublishing companies, the department will also collaborate with theDepartment of Culture and Sports to send mobile libraries to ruralareas and gift books to local needy children.
The department issubmitting a proposal for the city's first awards for children’s books tothe municipal People’s Committee. The event is expected to begin inSeptember.
It is also makingplans for the city’s annual Tet Book Street during the Lunar New Yearfestival and the 11th HCM City Book Expo in the first quarter of next year.
In addition, aninternational exhibition on the printing sector is expected to be held at theTan Binh Exhibition and Convention Centre in Tan Binh district in September.
Speaking at arecent meeting on book publishing, distribution and printing, Luongsaid: "The city has called on departments to work with the VietnamPublishers Association and local publishing houses to promote readinghabits among people, particularly children.”
He noted that thepublishing houses had achieved good results in the first half of the year.
Three localpublishing houses, Tre (Youth), Van Hoa Van Nghe (Culture, Literary and Arts)and Tong Hop (General), released 1,328 new book titles with more than 3.5million copies.
In the first sixmonths of the year, the HCM City Book Pedestrian Street organised 11photo, painting and book exhibitions, and 65 book introductions and meetingswith authors.
It introduced 613 newtitles and sold 251,792 copies in the first quarter of this year. Its revenuein the first quarter was 11.6 billion VND (500,000 USD).
City authoritiesand three publishing houses also took part in an international book fair inSaint Petersburg, Russia in May to introduce books on President Ho ChiMinh and Vietnamese islands, culture, tourism, literature and investment.
Despite achievements,the city is facing an increase in the number of fake books found one-commerce platforms like Lazada, Shopee, Sendo and Tiki.
Le Hoang, Vice Chairmanof the Vietnam Publishers Association, said: “Fake books are not only soldon the pavement but are also available by the thousands on e-commerceplatforms.”
Representatives fromthe city’s three publishing houses said they could not control or checkall books sold on e-commerce platforms because hundreds of retail sellersoperate on these platforms.
The department askedthe publishing houses to submit their suggestions on ways tocontrol the violations.
The department willwork with the Police Department, the Market Management Department andinterdisciplinary inspection teams to inspect violators and try to resolve theproblems.-VNS/VNA
VNA
