By Yao Siyan
BEIJING, Aug. 27 (Xinhuanet) – Outstanding overseas publishers, copyright agencies, writers and translators gathered in a forum themed "One Belt and One Road Initiative and Publishing" days before BIBF, one of world's most influential book fairs, opens in Beijing.
Senior exhibition director of London Book Fair Jacks Thomas applauded the Beijing International Book Fair (BIBF) held Aug. 26-30, expressing her optimism about the China's publishing market.
To Tan Yue, President of China Publishing Group Corporation, the "Belt and Road" initiative means historical opportunity for Chinese and foreign publishing industries to exchange and cooperate, for they have splendid national cultures and bear the heritage of human civilizations -- a wealth of inspirations and broad market space for publishers.
F. William Engdahl, a famous American-German economist and geopolitian has just signed a contract with a Chinese publisher for his new book about the great initiative "Belt and Road".
He holds this initiative is the first one to link different countries with high-speed rail, and on the other hand to bring about cultural influences with equal significance of its economic impacts.
Through cultural cooperation and exchanges, including good literature works, people usher in "an era of understanding and mutual trust", he said.
Full of enthusiasm and well prepared, Assem Shalaby, chairman of the Publishers Association of Arab States, hoped for a constant development of China-Arab exchanges in copyright, publishing, translation, cultural and dissemination.
This forum is praised by attendees as "splendid cultural exchange fair" that mirrors a notable trend of today's publishing.
As a consultant for international publishing Rudiger Wichenbart put it, "The most notable trend of today's publishing is not ebooks, but the globalization of publishing, which sees a rapid increase of translated works coming out and copyright exchanges on the global scale."
"One Belt One Road has an adhesive force promoting the deep integration of different cultures along the line. The communication and integration of different civilizations show that the civilizations of the world are increasingly diversified and inclusive, which is the feature of the time," said Shaimaa Kamal, director of the College of Foreign Languages and Translation of Badr University In Cairo.
