National Assembly delegates from Nghe An province propose solutions to develop reading culture

On the morning of June 19, continuing the 7th Session of the 15th National Assembly, chaired by Comrade Tran Thanh Man - Politburo member, Chairman of the National Assembly, delegates discussed in the hall the investment policy of the National Target Program on Cultural Development for the period 2025 - 2035. Comrade Nguyen Thi Thanh - Member of the Party Central Committee, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly chaired.

PROPOSAL FOR READING PROMOTION

Speaking at the discussion, delegate Hoang Minh Hieu - Standing member of the National Assembly's Law Committee, National Assembly delegate of Nghe An delegation expressed his high consensus on the necessity of promulgating the National Target Program on cultural development; agreed with the review report of the National Assembly's Culture and Education Committee that it is necessary to review and approve the Program according to the 2-session process to ensure the quality of the program's content.

In particular, according to delegate Hoang Minh Hieu, in addition to the viewpoints and principles of program development stated in the Review Report, it is necessary to add the viewpoint that cultural development has specific factors, requires a long-term process, and needs to attract widespread, proactive and active participation of the people, because culture is the values ​​created and accumulated by people through a long-term process of living and working.

From the above viewpoint, the delegate of Nghe An delegation expressed his agreement with considering the development of reading culture as one of the important goals. The history of many countries has clearly shown the role of reading culture in the socio-economic development of a country in general and the cultural development of that nation in particular. Especially, in the current context, reading culture is also the foundation for people to supplement their knowledge and achieve the goal of lifelong learning.

“However, we see that the solutions to develop reading culture in the draft National Target Program are mainly focused on necessary conditions, that is, conditions on people's ability to access books through the library system,” analyzed delegate Hoang Minh Hieu. “But reality has shown that the development of the library system does not always go hand in hand with the development of reading culture.”

According to current statistics, Vietnam is leading the Southeast Asia region in terms of the number of public libraries with more than 6,000 libraries while the second-ranked country, Thailand, has about 2,000 public libraries.

Meanwhile, the percentage of people with the habit of reading books in Vietnam is only about 20% while in Thailand it is about 86%, Singapore is about 80%; on average, Vietnamese people only read about 4 books per year, while this number in Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand is from 10 to 15 books.

“Therefore, we believe that to develop a reading culture, it is not only necessary to develop a library system but also to have effective reading promotion programs to encourage reading culture in each individual, each family, and each community,” the delegate said, suggesting adding specific contents to the Program, including:

Add specific targets by 2035 to more accurately assess the development of reading culture such as the proportion of people with reading habits; the average number of books read per person per year; the increase in the number of books published per year, etc.

It is necessary to conduct research to supplement the National Target Program with some effective reading promotion programs; it is possible to refer to some reading promotion programs that have been successfully implemented in some countries in the region, for example: National reading movement in Singapore, Decade of reading culture development in Malaysia, Program to encourage reading activities for children in Japan...

Research on building institutions to encourage reading culture. For example, in Japan, this country has built the Law on Encouraging Children to Read; the Law on Promoting Reading Culture to develop reading culture of the whole population, in which reading culture is clearly defined as a field of spiritual culture, playing an important role in improving people's knowledge and building human personality.

WORRY ABOUT THE "BLEEDING" SITUATION OF ANTIQUES

Regarding the goal of preserving and promoting the value of documentary heritage, antiquities and national treasures, delegate Hoang Minh Hieu worried: "It can be said that documentary heritage, antiquities and national treasures are the crystallization of national culture, and have great value in preserving and promoting the cultural values ​​of the nation. However, in recent times, we have witnessed many domestic antiquities and documentary heritages being illegally taken abroad."

There are many reasons for this situation, one of the fundamental reasons, according to the delegate, is that our country does not have effective programs to mobilize people's participation in preserving and promoting the value of antiquities, including the fact that many people do not fully understand the value of the documents and antiquities they own.

“For example, we know that there are currently families that own ancient books that have been passed down from generation to generation, including books that are said to be written by famous physicians from the Tran Dynasty. However, these documentary heritages and artifacts have not been scientifically and specifically evaluated for preservation and promotion,” the delegate shared.

Therefore, the delegate of Nghe An delegation proposed to study and supplement solutions to encourage people's participation and raise social awareness about preserving and promoting the value of national documentary heritage, antiquities and treasures.

In particular, it is possible to study and design a program for the State to record and evaluate documentary heritage and antiquities owned by the people. In some countries, there are similar programs that are very successful such as: The Antiquities Discovery Program in China or the Antiquities Hotline Program in the UK, the United States and some other countries.

In this program, the people's antiques are evaluated for free in terms of material and cultural value so that they can better understand the antiques they own, and the state agencies can get information about these antiques. The program has the participation of media agencies, so it helps to reduce the state budget and educate the public about the cultural value of antiques.

“For example, the Antiques Line Program in the UK has attracted a large number of viewers because of the appeal of unique antiques and the interesting historical stories behind them. The program also contributes to educating the public about the value of cultural heritage and the importance of protecting antiques. In our opinion, these are valuable experiences that the Drafting Committee needs to study to further improve the contents of this important national target program,” said delegate Hoang Minh Hieu.

Also in the working program on the morning of June 19, the National Assembly heard the Government's presentation and the verification report of the National Assembly's Committee on National Defense and Security on the draft Law on Fire Prevention, Fire Fighting, Rescue and Relief.