Building the publishing industry into a key economic and cultural industry of the country

On August 26, in Hanoi, the Central Propaganda and Mass Mobilization Commission coordinated with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Vietnam Publishing Association to organize a conference to summarize 20 years of implementing Directive No. 42-CT/TW, dated August 25, 2004 of the Central Secretariat on "Improving the overall quality of publishing activities".

Member of the Politburo , Secretary of the Party Central Committee, Head of the Central Propaganda and Education Commission Nguyen Trong Nghia; Deputy Head of the Central Propaganda and Education Commission Phan Xuan Thuy; Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Phan Tam and Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Communist Magazine Pham Minh Tuan - Chairman of the Vietnam Publishing Association co-chaired the conference.

Conference to review 20 years of implementing Directive No. 42-CT/TW, dated August 25, 2004 of the Central Secretariat on "Improving the overall quality of publishing activities".

Attending the conference were representatives of leaders of a number of central ministries, departments, branches, training institutions, and associations; representatives of leaders of publishing houses; representatives of leaders of publishing houses, printing and book distribution units; experts and scientists in the field of publishing.

Building the publishing industry into a spearhead cultural industry

At the Conference, delegates listened to the Summary Report on 20 years of implementing Directive No. 42-CT/TW, dated August 25, 2004 of the Central Secretariat on "Improving the overall quality of publishing activities; exchanging and evaluating the results of leadership, direction, management and organization of implementation of Directive No. 42-CT/TW; clearly stating the difficulties, limitations, obstacles, causes, lessons learned; at the same time proposing tasks and breakthrough solutions to promote publishing activities to transform strongly in the new era.

The opinions expressed at the Conference were unanimous: After 20 years of implementing Directive No. 42-CT/TW, publishing activities have achieved important and comprehensive achievements, specifically: The quality of publication content has been improved, rich, attractive, diverse, promptly serving political tasks, meeting the needs of readers.

The printing sector has achieved many important achievements, especially in terms of production efficiency, product quality and competitiveness. Distribution activities have developed strongly in terms of both the number of distribution facilities and the ability to reach the public.

The task of developing a reading culture has been focused on leadership, direction and implementation, initially forming the habit of reading books and the need for reading books in a segment of the population. The work of training, fostering and developing the force and team of the publishing industry is constantly innovated, basically meeting the requirements and tasks of publishing activities.

International cooperation activities on publishing have been strongly implemented, starting to create the position and prestige of the Vietnamese publishing industry in the region and the world .

Delegates speaking at the Conference.

At the Conference, delegates also frankly acknowledged a number of limitations and problems in the implementation of Directive 42-CT/TW: The quality of books is not uniform in all fields, the number of books has increased but the quality is still limited, there are not really many valuable book sets worthy of the country's development.

The situation of counterfeit and pirated books has not been resolved, and at times has even become more serious. The mechanism for attracting human resources to participate in publishing activities is still inadequate, leading to a shortage of high-quality human resources.

Some governing bodies have not paid attention to investing in supporting mechanisms, policies, and resources necessary to support the development of publishers. Some publishers have not proactively researched and grasped the needs and tastes of the publishing market, and have been passive, confused, and have relied on the support of governing bodies, leading to products supplied to the market lacking innovation, creativity, and being outdated and not suitable to the needs of the people. The capacity and potential of publishers are still weak; the scale of production and business organization is small.

The issue of the organizational model of publishers still contains many shortcomings. The determination of the model after 20 years of slow implementation is not suitable for current reality. Regulations on copyright for electronic publications and e-commerce platforms do not fully cover the development practice of publishing activities...

To improve the overall quality of publishing activities in the new era, ensure the goal of effectively serving political and ideological tasks, and at the same time perform economic tasks well, building the publishing industry into a key economic - cultural industry of the country, delegates agreed on the following solutions:

Continue to thoroughly grasp the Party's viewpoints on the role of publishing in the new era. Leadership, direction and management must contribute to promoting the development of the publishing industry; resolutely eliminate the practice of "if you can't manage it, ban it"; promote the mindset that the State plays a constructive and supportive role in publishing activities, the State builds an institutional framework, creates a legal corridor, and does not do it for others or on behalf of others.

Review, research, and complete the system of legal documents, focusing on advising on amendments and supplements to the Publishing Law. Develop a strategy for the development of the Vietnamese publishing industry, in which it is determined that removing bottlenecks in mechanisms and policies is very important, creating the most favorable conditions for publishing activities, while strengthening control and strictly handling violations.

Research and deploy publishing and media group models to suit the new situation, promote the capacity and potential of publishing activities in accordance with the role and position of publishing;.

Promote comprehensive digital transformation and apply modern technology to publishing activities, identifying digital transformation as an important driving force for publishing to develop strongly in the context of digital media.

Strengthening the development and training of high-quality human resources, focusing on close cooperation between training institutions and other entities in publishing activities; taking meeting practical requirements as a measure to evaluate training quality. Implementing policies to attract and reward talents, focusing on training a team of experts in technology and management.

Continue to promote the development of national reading culture through issuing new policies and strengthening international cooperation in the field of copyright exchange to bring Vietnamese books and culture to the world.

The highest goal of publishing is to serve the people, foster qualities, intelligence and aspirations for human development.

Speaking at the conference, Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Phan Tam emphasized that over two decades of implementing Directive 42 of the Secretariat, the publishing, printing and distribution industry has made comprehensive developments, affirming its particularly important position on the ideological and cultural front, while contributing to improving people's knowledge, enriching spiritual life and promoting the cultural industry.

Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Phan Tam spoke.

Deputy Minister Phan Tam said 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 "loopholes" for pirated, distorted, and toxic products.

Therefore, it is necessary to legalize the legal responsibilities of intermediary platforms for distributing electronic publications; at the same time, strongly innovate management methods, strongly shift State management from "pre-control" to "post-control"; continue to implement the policy of socialization, expand and perfect the linkage mechanism in publishing activities, encourage the private sector to participate more strongly, especially in exploiting manuscripts, editing, printing, publishing and distributing digitally. 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, Politburo member, Party Central Committee Secretary, Head of the Central Propaganda and Mass Mobilization Commission Nguyen Trong Nghia affirmed that Directive 42-CT/TW issued by the Secretariat in 2004 is a separate directive document for publishing activities, demonstrating the strategic vision and wise leadership of the Party.

Summarizing 20 years of implementing Directive 42 of the Secretariat is an activity of great political and ideological significance, demonstrating the special attention of the Party and State to the publishing sector.

Head of the Central Propaganda and Mass Mobilization Commission Nguyen Trong Nghia delivered a speech directing the Conference.

Emphasizing that the new context is posing requirements for innovation in thinking and working methods, Mr. Nguyen Trong Nghia said that the highest goal of publishing is to serve the people, foster the qualities, intelligence and aspirations for development of the Vietnamese people.

Therefore, it is necessary to focus on building a professional, humane, and modern publishing industry; considering published products not only to have cultural value but also to become a center for providing scientific knowledge for many fields.

In particular, in the era of digital transformation, publishing needs to promote the development of e-books, digital libraries, and the application of artificial intelligence; strengthen connectivity, linkage, and modernization of publishing work; and create a national knowledge system on a digital platform.

Head of the Central Propaganda and Mass Mobilization Commission Nguyen Trong Nghia suggested that it is necessary to pay attention to building a system of grassroots cultural institutions, especially when converting two-level local governments to better serve the people, diversifying library and bookcase models, both traditional and electronic, to better serve the people.

Mr. Nguyen Trong Nghia affirmed that, no matter how difficult the circumstances, publishing activities must maintain their humanistic nature and political-ideological orientation, while constantly innovating and modernizing to become a key cultural industry, continuing to develop, contributing to building a national knowledge foundation and spreading Vietnamese values ​​to the world.

At the Conference, the Central Propaganda and Mass Mobilization Commission awarded Certificates of Merit to 17 collectives with outstanding achievements in advising and organizing the implementation of Directive No. 42-CT/TW (2004 - 2024).

Source: https://bvhttdl.gov.vn/xay-dung-nganh-xuat-ban-thanh-mot-nganh-kinh-te-cong-nghiep-van-hoa-mui-nhon-cua-dat-nuoc-20250826205709941.htm