Bodour Al Qasimi, President of the International Publishers Association (IPA), has reaffirmed the IPA’s commitment to the Arabic publishing industry in developing robust business ecosystems to fuel the growth of Arab publishing associations on regional and international levels.
The IPA President’s remarks came during a visit to Cairo, Egypt, where she met with representatives of the Arab Publishers Association (APA) and the Egyptian Publishers Association (EPA). These meetings are a part of her efforts to increase awareness of IPA programs designed to support the publishing market, which has been greatly impacted by the global pandemic.
In her meetings with representatives of the APA and the EPA, she discussed the impact of COVID-19 on the publishing industry and explained that the International Sustainable Publishing and Industry Resilience (InSPIRe) Plan was launched to unify the voice and vision of the publishing industry ecosystem and boost its recovery and growth.
She further expounded the vital role that publishers play in shaping the ever-evolving landscape of the publishing market and highlighted the need for the industry to align its vision with anticipated changes in reading habits, content creation, new distribution, and delivery models, and the emergence of new paper and e-book markets.
She emphasized that technology would set the pace and steer the growth of publishing in the coming years and that the rapid adoption of modern technologies was essential to bridge the current digital and technological gaps in the publishing sector.
Bodour lauded the efforts of the APA in advancing the regional book industry and commended the EPA for the launch of the Incentive Publishing Award – and for organizing several awareness seminars to stimulate the growth of the publishing industry.
She called on Arab and Egyptian publishers to attend a virtual panel organized by the IPA in February and to ensure that members benefit from the InSPIRe Plan. She also encouraged them to take advantage of the training programs offered by the IPA Academy – a centralized global training resource that aims to help members acquire new skillsets and drive digital transformation through upskilling in a wide variety of areas such as digital production, marketing, and online sales.
During her visit to the Egyptian capital, Bodour attended the opening ceremony of the 53rd edition of the Cairo International Book Fair (CIBF) and met with participating publishers from around the world, gaining insights into their progress and opportunities. She toured the fair’s halls and visited the pavilion of Greece, the book fair’s Guest of Honour.
She addressed the opening session of ‘Translating from Arabic: A Bridge Between Civilisations … Our Books Enlighten the World’ conference, organized by Egypt’s Ministry of Culture on the sidelines of CIBF. In her speech, the IPA President hailed the efforts of Arab translators, pointing out that their early works led to a cultural renaissance and modernism in the Arab world, and enhanced the role of Arab and Islamic civilizations in humanity’s transition to a new stage of knowledge development.
She also emphasized the need to restore translation and translators to their prestigious position in the world of culture, literature, and science, and reclaim the prominent role of the profession – both in the development of sciences and knowledge and as a means to diversify new revenue sources. She added that publishers must adopt initiatives to inspire the new generation of translators and help establish a robust infrastructure for the Arabic translation sector to enhance and promote the region’s culture and heritage.
