The Kuala Lumpur World Book Capital 2020 was presented to international delegates at the Malaysian pavilion at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2018 on October 11, 2018.
The World Book Capital is the city which UNESCO designates to be the headquarters of activities for World Book and Copyright Day on April 23. This date is the anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, as well as that of the birth or death of several other prominent authors. It has been celebrated since 2001 when Madrid, hosted the events in Spain. Since then many cities from all over the globe have hosted the events including the African cities of Alexandria, Egypt in 2002, Port Harcourt, Nigeria in 2014 and Conakry, Guinee in 2017.
On September 20, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia was designated as UNESCO World Book Capital 2020. The city was selected because of the strong focus on inclusive education, the development of a knowledge-based society and accessible reading for all parts of the city’s population.
With the slogan “KL Baca – caring through reading”, the program focuses on four themes: reading in all its forms, development of the book industry infrastructure, inclusiveness and digital accessibility, and empowerment of children through reading. Among other events and activities there will be the construction of a book city (the Kota Buku Complex), a reading campaign for train commuters, enhancing of digital services and accessibility by the National Library of Malaysia for the disabled, and new digital services for libraries in 12 libraries in poor housing areas of Kuala Lumpur.
At the Malaysian pavilion at the Frankfurt Book Fair the team who were organising the festival presented their plans for 2020 to the world. Here are images from this event.
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