Hanoi (VNA) – The establishmentof the Vietnam Book Day has contributed greatly to restoring and developing thereading culture, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam said at a national conferenceon April 18 reviewing the impacts of the Book Day since it was first observed fiveyears ago.

April 21 every year isdesignated the Vietnam Book Day under the Prime Minister’s Decision 284/QD-TTgdated February 24, 2014.

Deputy PM Dam hailed publishing houses,organisations and individuals who have made great efforts to publish books andsend books to remote areas. The mass media have also played an important rolein promoting the reading habits and the love for books.

For the good habit to continuespreading, the deputy PM requested the Ministry of Information andCommunications to compile policies to facilitate book publishing anddistribution, noting that there remain several problems in financial andeconomic mechanisms for publishing and other book-related activities that needto be quickly removed.

He urged the Ministry of Culture,Sport and Tourism to continue to implement its project on developing thereading culture and integrate it into other cultural development schemes.

Dam also stressed the importanceof international exchange and cooperation in order to introduce Vietnamesepublications to foreign readers and vice versa.

Minister of Information and CommunicationNguyen Manh Hung reported at the conference that the number of book titlespublished in the past 5 years increased by 22 percent and the number of bookcopies went up by 55 percent. Many schools and communes have set up their ownlibraries. Two big cities – Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City – have operated bookstreets, while many localities regularly organize book festivals. A nationalbook award has been held every year.

In the next five years, thenumber of book titles published is projected to rise by 50 percent and bookcopies by 100 percent, while such activities as books’ days, book streets and bookfairs will be multiplied across the country.

Participants took the occasionto make recommendations on how to further promote the reading culture.-VNA