Sharjah (Union)
As part of her efforts to advance the publishing industry at the global level, and to enable Arab publishers to benefit more from the opportunities available in this sector, Sheikha Bodour bint Sultan Al Qassimi, President of the International Publishers Association, met during her visit to Tunisia and Morocco with representatives of the Tunisian Publishers Union and the Moroccan Publishers Union in Two separate meetings, during which issues related to enhanced interaction with the international publishing community were discussed.
At the beginning of her visit to the Tunisian capital, Sheikha Bodour met with representatives of the Tunisian Publishers Association, who welcomed the keenness of the International Publishers Association to provide them with the opportunity to learn about its initiatives and projects, and to discuss ways of cooperation with them, and to facilitate their access to other markets, in the Mediterranean basin and southern Europe.
During her visit to the Moroccan city of Casablanca, Sheikha met with Moroccan publishers, who expressed their happiness with this interest from the International Publishers Association, to learn about their needs, to identify the challenges they are going through, and to listen to their views on the reality and future of the publishing market in Morocco and the region.
The President of the International Publishers Association reviewed before the members of the Tunisian and Moroccan Publishers Union the initiatives and projects launched by the union to support the publishing sector’s recovery efforts from the impact of the Corona pandemic to help member publishers develop and innovate mechanisms to maintain their stability and develop their businesses, and to take advantage of the opportunities that the next stage brings.
Sheikha Bodour invited them to attend the 33rd Publishers Conference, which will be held in Jakarta, Indonesia in November 2022, and encouraged them to submit projects and proposals to benefit from the financial grants provided by the African Publishing Innovation Fund since its launch four years ago, in cooperation between the International Publishers Association and Dubai Cares. In its fourth and final year, it will provide $200,000 in financial support to African publishers in areas related to library restoration, original language publishing, e-book development, and others.
During her visit to Tunisia, Sheikha Bodour met with Mohamed Ould Amar, Director General of the Arab Organization for Education and Culture (ALECSO), at the organization’s headquarters in the Tunisian capital, where issues related to the book industry, freedom of publishing, intellectual property, and training of publishers were reviewed.