He spoke at a press conference on the national online book festival, which will take place from April 17 to May 15, to celebrate the 8th Vietnam Book Day.

According to Nguyen, the national online book festival will be held on website book365 floor.vn with the theme Books for Everyone. As part of the event, the online book copyright festival will be held on April 19-26, also on book365.vn floor, with the participation of many publishers from 32 countries. The opening ceremony of the 8th Vietnam Book Day will be organized on April 18 at Ho Chi Minh City Book Road. Also, many activities will be held throughout the country to celebrate the 8th Vietnam Book Day.

Mr. Nguyen Nguyen, director of the Publishing, Printing and Publishing Department

The online book festival will attract more than 70 domestic publishers and book distributors to the book exchange floor, over 50 domestic and international publishers to the book copyright floor and more than 20,000 book titles, said Nguyen.

For the first time, the national online book festival will have a book copyright transaction floor, emphasized Nguyen. He hoped that this would be a pilot step for domestic publishers to experience this form of copyright transactions with foreign partners.

"In Vietnam, the proportion of foreign books accounts for about 30%, creating a basis for online copyright transaction. So far, publishers from 32 countries have agreed to join this transaction floor. On this floor, copyrights on three types of books - English books, children's books, technology books – will be traded," he said.

The organizers have made improvements in the interface as well as technology of book365.vn to enable readers to search and select books and enable connection and transactions among publishers.

Many events, such as seminars, online exchanges between authors, translators, researchers and publishers with readers; programs to encourage readers to buy books; and book discounts, free shipping and presentation of gifts to readers and book sellers and others, will be held during the book fair.

Two ministries jointly promote reading culture

The signing ceremony between representatives of the Publishing, Printing and Publishing Department (Ministry of Information and Communications) and the Vietnam National Library.

The Ministry of Information and Communications and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on April 15 signed an agreement in the field of publishing and libraries towards the goal of promoting the reading movement and reading culture in the community.

According to Nguyen Ngoc Bao, Deputy Director of the Publishing, Printing and Publishing Department, under this agreement, the two ministries will coordinate to hold book exhibitions, promotion of books and publishing and library activities through the organization of book-related events such as conferences, seminars at home and abroad, activities to respond to the Vietnam Book Day and Reading Culture (April 21), the World Book and Copyright Day (April 23), the National Book Awards; support and transfer the application of information technology to the library system to access digital/electronic publications, and expand information connections, and data share between the two sides; inspect the publication receipt of publishers and organizations licensed to publish non-business documents to submit to the National Library of Vietnam in accordance with the law on publishing; and digitize publications for management.

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