CEOSpeak 2020 reiterates that books are the best means for exchanges between nations

On the side lines of New Delhi World Book Fair (NDWBF), FICCI and National Book Trust (NBT) jointly organized 8th edition of CEOSpeak on January 5, 2020.

Dr Mohsin Jawadi, Deputy Minister for Culture & Guidance, Government of Islamic Republic of Iran invited Indian publishers in International Book Fair in Tehran to showcase their offerings. He said that they are prepared to closely collaborate with Indian authors and publishers as well.

Prof Govind Prasad Sharma, Chairman, National Book Trust, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India in his welcome address, said that last year, National Book Trust, India was the Nodal Agency for the Guest of Honour Presentation of India at Abu Dhabi International Book Fair and at Guadalajara International Book Fair. “We participate in all major international book fairs with collective exhibit of books from India, and the Rights catalogue created by us is a rich data base of exporters from India, and importers abroad to make suitable choices,” he said.

While, Niknam Husainpur, CEO, Publication House, Iran, said that cooperation between Indian and Iranian publishers is an important aspect of Indo-Iran relations and Iran is willing to cooperate with Indian publishers. He also highlighted that, in Iran, the regional award for the Book of the Year, in its second year, is devoted to the work of Indian authors, who write about Iran. The regional awards will be held in Yazd in the next few days. Dilip Chenoy, Secretary General, FICCI, said that India has a very vibrant ecosystem of publishing in India that is responsible for its impressive growth. India is one of the few major markets in the world which is still witnessing growth both in print and digital publishing. Besides, Ratnesh Jha, Chair, FICCI Publishing Committee highlighted publishing industry as the strongest arm of building the cultural ties between the various countries across the world. “In the vision of India becoming a $5 trillion economy, the opportunity to create, consume and export world class content can not only create jobs in India but also add billions to the Indian GDP,” he said.

Kumar Vikram, Editor (English), Project Incharge, Research & Innovation, National Book Trust, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India made a brief presentation on Indian presence as Guest Country at Abu Dhabi International Book Fair and at Guadalajara International Book Fair, where more than 100 delegates from India participated as part of the scheme – Promotion of Indian Books Abroad.

Panel Discussion: Book Export Markets

Ramesh Mittal, Chairman, CAPEXIL moderated the session and S. K. Ghai, Managing Director, Sterling Publishing; Aditi Maheshwari, Director, Vani Prakashan; Jacek Oryl, Director, Warsaw Book Fair; Ravi DeeCee, CEO, DC Books, and Esha Chatterjee, CEO, BEE Books were the distinguished panellists.

Panel further discussed about export market in Africa, US, UK and Canada which is in favour of Indian publishers but at the same time Indian publishers are losing on exports in Nepal due to increase in import duty to 10% their as well as Pakistan due to tension between the two nations. Also, Mittal highlighted that exports to south East Asia are only 2.8%, West Asia about 6.4% and so on., Latin America 2.27% and so on.

(Source: FICCI)