CO-PUBLISHING COMMITTEE REPORT
by: Atty. Dominador D. Buhain
Chairman, Co-Publishing Committee,
Asian Pacific Publishers Association
(May 30,-June 2, 2001, Seoul, Korea)
The Asia Pacific region has been changing rapidly these past years. The changes in both cyberspace and economics have been affecting pretty much the whole world, slowly changing how citizens form different countries relate to each other. Such changes pose a challenge to the publishing industry in the region. It seems that all areas of business are pointing to digitalization. How should publishers approach this growing trend? How should the APPA address this global phenomenon that could leave the paper industry behind?
There have been reports that the percentage of U.S. Internet users is dropping while the proportion of non-U.S., non- English-speaking Internet users is growing. It seems that doing business in cyberspace is slowly gaining a solid footing among non-Asians, and the rest of the world is taking notice. The United States is now venturing into multilingual Web publishing and printing, probably as a way of circumventing an inevitable death of paper publishing?
It’s not necessary for the United States to lead the way. Records show that most Internet experts and programmers are Asians. The APPA is at a vantage point of making a difference in this part of the world. The Co-publishing Committee (hereinafter known as the Committee) continues to hope and work for that time when member-publishers come together to produce and publish books, magazines or references that will respond to the common interests of Asians, be it in cyberspace or paper. Although we had found difficulty in the past in putting indigenous materials into one comprehensive book wherein peoples from our respective countries will universally enjoy, I believe the Internet is a very good medium to be used to reach out for this goal.
With three children’s book titles already under its drive, the Committee seeks to produce more in the coming years. Until that time, the Committee encourages each and every member-publisher of the APPA-recognized national associations to encourage their co-publishers to participate in international fairs, functions, competitions, symposia and other events related to publishing. With this desired interaction, awareness among our peoples may be developed to achieve the conviction that indeed joint-publishing among ourselves is worth pursuing.
Consistent with one of the objective of APPA which is: ‘’to encourage co-publication project among member-countries,’’ the Committee endeavors to maintain and uphold the spirit of cooperation with one another by keeping track on publishing activities around the area. The Committee once more appeals for the cooperation among the member-publishers of the APPA to embark into more ambitious co-publishing projects that shall be testament to our unity in the industry.
The Committee therefore for its next project is envisioning to produce under a single publication a compilation for the best literatures (with the English translations) and best illustrations as adjudged as such by the concerned national publishing associations recognized by APPA.
Thank you very much.