Foreign embassies, publishers attend Hanoi Book Festival 2019

The Hanoi Book Festival 2019, themed “Hanoi – the city for peace”, opened at the Thang Long Imperial Citadel on October 2.

Organisers said the festival features about 200 booths from domestic and foreign publishers and book distributors.

Participants at the event include the Indian and French embassies in Hanoi, the ASEAN Book Publishers Association, the publishers’ associations of the Philippines and Myanmar, and 14 publishers from Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore.

The five-day festival features talkshows with writers, book discussions, musical performances, and a seminar on publishing trends in the ASEAN region, among others.

Meanwhile, highlights of activities to mark the Capital Liberation Day will be an exhibition about the city for peace, a programme that reenacts the first flag salute ceremony on the liberation day, and an exchange with witnesses of the historical event.

The event will take place from October 2 to 6.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Vice Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Ngo Van Quy stressed the festival reflects the importance of books in the social life and studiousness tradition of Vietnamese people.

Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Hoang Vinh Bao expected the festival to continue expanding its scale and attractiveness to become a nationwide event in the future.

The Indonesian Embassy in Hanoi sets up a booth to introduce Indonesian books and culture to Vietnamese people.