Readers attend a book fair at HCMC Book Street in April.
The statement was announced on April 18 by the HCMC Department of Information and Communications in coordination with the Authority of Publication, Printing, and Distribution under the Ministry of Information and Communications, and the municipal Department of Culture and Sports.
The book festival that will run until April 24 attracts more than 20 publishing houses throughout the country. The book show will be divided into three areas featuring over 500,000 prints, including digital transformation, book city, and introduction of reading cultural models. There are also seminars on book publication and release.
The Vietnam Book and Reading Culture Day 2022 will be also held in Thu Duc City and districts across the city, 63 provinces, and cities nationwide.
The opening ceremony will be broadcast live on channels of the HCMC Television (HTV), Voice of HCMC’s People (VOH), and the fanapage of the HCMC Press Center.
HCMC’s readers will have a chance to participate in a wide range of cultural activities, such as exchanges between writers and readers, introductions of books, and seminars on books.
In addition, many exhibitions of children's books, books on primary teaching methods, 100 business books, books on studying, following President Ho Chi Minh's example, Nobel prize-winning books, limited edition books, and special editions will take place in HCMC Book Street during the event.
After being “frozen” over the past two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic, several international book festivals have been organized, consisting of the 59th Bologna Children's Book Fair in Italia, the 50th National Book Fair, and 20th Bangkok International Book Fair 2022 in Thailand, the 30th Havana International Book Fair scheduled to take place on April 20-30 in Cuba, the London Book Fair (LBF) - a large book-publishing trade fair.
As one of the unique units participating in the London Book Fair 2022 took place between April 5-7, Executive Director of the Books 1980 Media and Culture Company Limited, Nguyen Van Tuan said that the company carried out online trade transactions with foreign publishing houses when the Covid-19 pandemic had not occurred. However, the 1980 Books wanted to attend the in-person book fair in London to learn about changes in the world’s publishing industry and seek new partners.
As the annual large-scale book festivals, such as HCMC Book Festival, Hanoi Book Festival have not been planned to organize, small book events have been held by publishers and book companies.
Le Hoang, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Publishers Association highly appreciated small-scale book activities that have contributed to the recovery of the publishing industry in the country after the pandemic.
Mr. Nguyen Van Tuan said that the pandemic has affected all industries of the country, including the publishing sector. It needs more time to recover this area. The development of Vietnam’s publishing industry is not as strong as other nations in the region, such as China, South Korea, and Japan. The 1980 Books has sought script resources for publishing in Vietnam.
