Society and Book Culture: Bangkok designated as World Book Capital 2013

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has designated Bangkok as the World Book Capital 2013. The capital city of Thailand was selected “for its willingness to bring together all the various stakeholders in the book supply chain and beyond, actors involved in the publication chain for a range of projects proposed”.

Another reason the selection committee has given the preference to this city is the rich and varied program of events it has prepared. The meeting of the committee was held June 27 at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris.

The World Book Capital selection committee includes representatives of UNESCO, as well as leading professional book industry associations, among them the International Publishers Associations (IPA-UIE), the International Booksellers Federation (IBF), the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA).

Each year this committee attributes the title to a city which has committed itself to promote books and reading, and to highlight the vitality of literary creativity.

Bangkok has become 13th World Book Capital following Madrid (Spain, 2001), Alexandria (Egypt, 2002), New Delhi (India, 2003), Antwerp (Belgium, 2004), Montreal (Canada, 2005), Turin (Italy, 2006), Bogotá (Colombia, 2007), Amsterdam (the Netherlands, 2008), Beirut (Lebanon, 2009), Ljubljana (Slovenia, 2010), Buenos Aires (Argentina, 2011) and Yerevan (Armenia, 2012).