Mohammad Ali Husseini also urged the national airwaves (IRIB) in the event to expend more efforts so that the habit of book reading grows into a social norm.

 

The Minister spoke of an improvement in nationwide per capita quota of book reading after several years of planning. He then urged men of clout in society, including poets, authors and philosophers, to roll their sleeves and set up a performance to materialize a benchmark set by the Leader of Islamic Revolution for turning book reading into a social habit.

 

Husseini in another regard touched on plans to stage book fairs in provinces nationwide, urging for a dispatch of the authors themselves to the mission as a source of attraction. The Minister believed that a presence of authors in the planned provincial fairs would cause the visitors to identify with book reading values and absorb them to the cultural domain.

 

Husseini in the same regard urged the provincial subsidiaries of the Ministry to accord necessary cooperation in facilitation of presence of the authors in such fairs and other cultural events, including book review panels. In a related remark, Husseini urged the press to abandon issues of low social significance in favor of a serious undertaking in promotion of book reading which would serve them as well.

  

 

He also assigned his ministry to adopt priority-informed policies in full compliance with relevant rules and regulations to meet the needs and demands of society and find remedies to the problem.

  

 

He also urged for staging of book reading contests among different social groups including school students, university students and government staffs in a bid to promote productive study and expand public knowledge through introduction of invaluable works and a preference of understanding to rote learning.

 

The Minister in the same regard urged executive bodies to hand publications to their staff at a special discount and adopt a major policy to enhance their efficiency as well as political, social and cultural insight.

 

The Minister also instructed his ministry to follow up a nationwide "My Book" project which was inaugurated by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the previous edition of International Tehran Book Fair and was subsequently commissioned in 11 provinces so that the project extends to every corner of the country and those interested can get access to their needed books in public libraries over a maximum fortnight.