Society and book culture: The world capital of the book 2019 was the city of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates

UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova declared the city of Sharjah (UAE) the World Book Capital of 2019 on the recommendation of the Advisory Committee, which was held at the headquarters of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) in The Hague. This is reported on the UNESCO website.

The selection committee has chosen the city of Sharjah because of its extremely innovative and inclusive character, a program of activities aimed at the community, and creative proposals designed to involve the maximum number of migrants.

Under the slogan "Read - you are in Sharjah", the proposed program is divided into seven main themes: solidarity, reading, heritage, development of interest in books, book publishing and youth; And includes, in particular, a symposium on freedom of expression, a contest of young poets, training seminars on the creation of tactile books on the Braille system, as well as numerous actions on the polyethnic population.

The aim of the city is to promote reading culture in the UAE, as well as to encourage new initiatives to address the problems of literary creativity both in the region and in the rest of the Arab world.

In the city of Sharjah will be also open the first free zone, dedicated to publishing, printing and distribution of publications.

The title of the World Book Capital will be transferred to the city of Sharjah on April 23, 2019, the day of the celebration of World Book and Copyright Day.

Annually, the city, called the World Book Capital, undertakes to promote the popularization of books and reading. The city of Sharjah has become the 19th-largest book capital of the world since 2001. Previously, the cities bearing this title were Madrid (2001), Alexandria (2002), New Delhi (2003), Antwerp (2004), Montreal (2005), Turin (2006), Bogota (2007), Amsterdam (2008), Beirut (2009), Ljubljana (2010), Buenos Aires (2011), Yerevan (2012), Bangkok (2013), Port Harcourt (2014), Incheon (2015) and Wroclaw (2016). The world capital of the book of 2017 is Conakry, after which the title will pass to Athens.