Through nearly 7 exciting days (from 25th to 31st of March), the second Book Festival in Can Tho city in 2017 with the theme “Books – Culture, Development and Integration”, organized by the Department of Information and Communications of Can Tho city together with other relevant departments under the instructions of  the People’s Committee, was a big success.

The representatives of leaders attended the closing ceremony of the second Book Festival.

The Book Festival of this year was organized with large scale, attracting 96 units with 273 booths (up 58 booths in comparison with those in the first one) including 195 titles with 2,3 million copies in which more than 60% of titles were new and discounted by 10% - 50%. There were a large number of books in many different aspects in the festival such as literature, history, career, science, society, children and other products, such as learning equipment, children’s toys and souvenirs. Also, listing prices on publications and goods was strictly implemented under the regulations.

Many visitors attending the second Book Festival in Can Tho city in 2017

Especially, this festival gathered the preparation of some neighbor provinces (Ca Mau, Vinh Long, Ben Tre, Binh Duong) and foreign publishers coming from Britain, The US, Australia and Korea.

The booths of the neighbor provinces in the festival.

In addition, in the framework of the festival, many activities with diverse contents were operated attracting a lot of readers, such as the program “Books and Childhood”, the contest introducing books with the theme “The love of Can Tho’s – People and Land”, the work “ Can Tho- The old streets and The old styles”, exchanging and talking some information about “Flying to the world”, “What the young readers read” and so on.

The areas of Can Tho Library and other provinces displayed nearly 1,500 books and pictures of Uncle Ho Chi Minh’s life, thought, morals and style; history, geography, politics, economics, culture, tourism and handicraft products of Can Tho city and Mekong Delta; especially, the exhibition and experiment on 3D digital model on maps and in documents “ Hoang Sa, Truong Sa of Vietnam – Historical and legal evidence” and so on attracted a lot of visitors. Also, at some booths like Fahasha’s , Kim Dong’s, Alpha Books’, hundreds of programs took place such as talking and introducing about books, exchanging information among cultural researchers, writers, poets and authors with readers; offering books with authors’ signatures; offering gifts having a large number of visitors.

Visitors attended the exhibition and experimented 3D digital model on maps and in documents “Hoang Sa, Truong Sa of Vietnam – Historical and legal evidence” at the library of Can Tho city.

The security, hygiene and fire prevention were ensured; especially, the combination of observation by public camera systems among the organizers and the booths contributed the success of these works in the festival.

Car parking for delegates and visitors was organized carefully with the price listed seriously under the regulation.

The price of parking was listed seriously.

According to statistics, the second Book Festival in Can Tho city in 2017 attracted more than 390,000 visitors (up over 30% in comparison with those in the first one in 2015). The total turnover of the booths reached over VND16,7 billion (up nearly 30% in comparison with that of the first one) with 2,097 million copies sold (up over 25,4% in comparison with those of the first one). The units had high turnover were Tiki company, FAHASA, Kim Dong Publishing House, Nha Nam, Hong An, Phuong Nam and so on.

At the end of the festival, the organizers made a donation to charity and received the book support of 21 units and individuals with a total value of more than VND 450 million. These books will be offered to cultural post offices, reading rooms, schools in new rural communes in the city.

Also, at this festival, the organizers voted and offered Certificates of Merit to 20 units contributed to the success of the second Book Festival in Can Tho city in 2017.