On August 26, in Hanoi, the Central Propaganda and Mass Mobilization Committee chaired a conference in coordination with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Vietnam Publishing Association to summarize 20 years of implementing Directive No. 42-CT/TW, dated August 25, 2004 of the Central Secretariat on "Improving the comprehensive quality of publishing activities".
Reporting at the conference, comrade Tong Van Thanh - Director of the Department of Press and Publishing, Central Propaganda and Mass Mobilization Committee said: "After 20 years of implementing Directive No. 42-CT/TW, publishing activities have achieved important and comprehensive achievements.
The quality of published content has been improved, rich, attractive, and diverse, promptly serving political tasks, meeting the needs of readers. The printing industry has achieved many important achievements, especially in production efficiency, product quality and competitiveness.
Issuing activities have developed strongly in both the number of issuers and public access. The task of developing a reading culture is focused on leadership, direction and implementation, initially forming the habit of reading, the need to read books in a part of the people.
Training, fostering and developing the force and team of the publishing industry is constantly innovating, basically meeting the requirements and tasks of publishing activities.
International cooperation activities in publishing have been strongly implemented, starting to create a position and prestige for the Vietnamese publishing industry in the region and the world".
Accordingly, the number of publications has grown steadily, from 17,800 books (206 million copies) in 2004 to more than 51,000 publications (597 million copies) in 2024. Average per capita is 5.9 billion/year, more than double the previous 20 years.
Many valuable political, scientific, cultural, literary and artistic works were published promptly, contributing significantly to the dissemination of the Party's guidelines and policies; consolidating the Party's ideological foundation; at the same time creating a phenomenon of publishing that spread strongly in society, especially among the younger generation.
Notably, the Vietnamese publishing industry has also achieved significant revenue. In 2024, the total revenue of the whole industry will reach more than VND 4,500 billion (an increase of 3.5 times compared to 2004).
At the conference, Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Phan Tam affirmed that over two decades of implementing Directive 42 of the Secretariat, the publishing, printing and distribution industry has had a comprehensive development step, affirming a particularly important position on the ideological and cultural front, while contributing to raising people's knowledge, fostering spiritual life and promoting the cultural industry.
Deputy Minister Phan Tam also emphasized that although the strong development of e-commerce and digital platforms is changing the entire value chain of the publishing industry, intermediary platforms can become a loophole for smuggled, distorted, and toxic products.
Therefore, the publishing industry needs to legalize the legal responsibility of e-publication distribution intermediary platforms; strongly innovate management methods, strongly shift State management from "pre- control" to " post- control"; continue to implement the policy of socialization, expansion and perfecting the linkage mechanism in publishing activities, encourage the private sector to participate more strongly, especially in the exploitation of copy, editing, printing, distribution and digital distribution.
However, it is necessary to ensure the central and proactive role of publishers in deciding on content, maintaining political and ideological orientation.
Speaking at the conference, Comrade Nguyen Trong Nghia - Politburo member, Secretary of the Party Central Committee, Head of the Central Propaganda and Mass Mobilization Commission emphasized that over the past 20 years, since the Secretariat issued Directive No. 42, the publishing industry has seriously grasped, implemented and achieved many important achievements; the capacity, potential, and position of publishing have been constantly improved and developed in terms of scale, technology, and qualifications in the country and the region.
The published publications have effectively served political tasks, economic and social development, and at the same time cared for the reading culture of the people.
Many important works and books, especially about Ho Chi Minh's ideology, national history, culture and people of Vietnam, General Vo Nguyen Giap have been translated into many languages, highly appreciated by international friends, and are present in many libraries of prestigious universities.
In addition to the achievements, comrade Nguyen Trong Nghia also pointed out the difficulties and challenges facing the publishing sector such as the competitive market mechanism, the explosion of the internet and social networks.
In particular, the situation of fake books and smuggled books still exists, while the innovation capacity of some publishers is still limited, some mechanisms and policies are not timely, and the organizational model is not really suitable for development requirements.
From the above challenges, the publishing industry needs to focus on building a professional, humane, and modern publishing environment; considering publishing products not only to have cultural value but also to become a center for providing scientific knowledge for many fields.
In the digital transformation era, publishing needs to promote the development of electronic books, digital libraries, and artificial intelligence applications; enhance connectivity, linkage, and modernize publishing; create a national knowledge system on a digital platform.
