Young people choose books at the HCM City’s 10th biennial Book Expo last March. (Photo: VNA) HCM City (VNS/VNA) - Local publishers and book distributors should releasemore quality books and expand their market to rural areas, border areas,islands and abroad to serve more readers, speakers said at a recent conferencein Ho Chi Minh City.
Hoang Vinh Bao, Deputy Minister ofInformation and Communications, said: “Publishing houses and book distributorsshould focus on books highlighting the country’s history and culture, and fightagainst books on wrong political views.”
Bao asked local authorities to work withpublishers and book distributors to prevent, discover and solve violations inpublishing sector.
At the meeting, over 60 publishers anddistributors in the country shared their experiences and achievements in 2018.
Last year, the publishing sector printed33,087 book titles with more than 430 million copies. Total revenue of thesector reached more than 2.5 trillion VND (107 million USD).
HCM City’s 10th biennial Book Expo in March was asuccess last year, with more than 180 international and Vietnamese publishers,distributors and other companies, which offered 300,000 titles in all fields.
The expo earned more than 60 billion VND (2.6million USD) in revenue, an increase of 20 percent compared to the last event.
It welcomed one million readers from the cityand neighbouring provinces during its seven day opening, an increase of 10 percentcompared to the previous event.
Le Hoang, Deputy Chairman of the VietnamPublishers Association, said despite great achievements in 2018, the publishingsector faced challenges promoting the people’s reading habits.
“Vietnamese people do not have the readinghabit. Except for reference books at school, each person reads only one book ayear,” he said, adding that promoting reading should begin in schools. “Goodbooks will help evoke students’ interest in reading.”
The association plans to work with publishersand distributors to compile a list of good books for students and will submitit to the Ministry of Education and Training for approval.-VNS/VNA
VNA
