Panel discussion addresses Tajikistan’s publishing industry

1394/02/24-10:51

Chief executive of Tajikistan-based publisher, Irfan says average edition of any book in the country may range from 800 to 5,000 copies while sometimes children’s titles maybe published at an edition of 10,000 copies.

Safar Amirkhan announced the figure on Wednesday in a panel discussion on the status of Persian publication in Tajikistan that was held on the sidelines of the 28^th Tehran International Book Fair (TIBF).

The panel debate was also joined by chief executive of another Tajikistan-based publisher, Adib, Serajodin Ekrami, aide to Iranian ambassador to Dushanbe, Sangmohamad Zahrzadeh, and expert in Tajik publishing industry, Abbas Nazari.

Early in the session, Ekrami said the publishing industry was expanding in the country thank to governmental support, adding the expansion among other things has led to the emergence of more titles on news stands.

The publishing manager urged forming a joint board for necessary coordination between the publishing companies in Iran and Tajikistan, adding the board may hold annual forums to study the existing shortfalls in the publishing industries and provide solutions.

The joint board, Ekrami suggested, may also have bilingual books published via a joint project.

In another regard, the publishing manager said up to five publishing companies are established at the private sector in Tajikistan on an annual basis.

In the meantime, Zahrzadeh offered a brief history on Cyrillic script and how Tajikistan adopted it as official script in 1941 after abandoning Persian script in 1939.

The cultural aide added however that many Tajik people still have a good command of Persian.

The 28^th Tehran International Book Fair started work in Tehran on May 6 under the motto of ‘reading as talking to the world.’ It runs until May 16.