Bodour Al Qasimi, President of the International Publishers Association (IPA), has hailed the dedication and commitment of publishers in Turkey for strengthening collaboration and solidarity amongst all members.

She urged them to move forward with hope and optimism while creating productive partnerships to enhance the collective growth potential of the industry.

The IPA President’s encouragement came during her opening address to global publishing professionals at the three-day Istanbul Publishing Fellowship Program.

Discussing the growth in stature and size of the program over the years, she noted that the collaborative approach – between key Turkish industry stakeholders, publishers and associations around the world – was crucial to the program’s success and made it an excellent model for publishing events everywhere.

Bodour also lauded publishers for making sure that books reach their readers without disruption, despite the complexities and challenges they have endured since the onset of the pandemic and reiterated the need for solidarity to tackle global challenges.

In her meetings with members of the Turkish Publishers Association, Bodour urged publishers worldwide to take advantage of the upskilling and capacity-building opportunities offered under the newly launched IPA Academy and to bridge the gaps fueled by the pandemic-driven digital acceleration. She noted that the IPA has created world-class educational material for the Academy in collaboration with New York University (USA), Oxford Brookes University (UK) and the Publishing Training Centre (UK), giving members access to courses and online seminars that offer crucial support for publishers as they navigate and emerge stronger and ready for a new phase of growth.

Repeating the need for solidarity and cooperation to take the industry forward, she said that the five priorities of copyright, freedom to publish, sustainability, diversity and inclusion, and technology and innovation, discussed at the recently concluded International Sustainable Publishing and Industry Resilience (InSPIRe) Symposium, are essential to future-proof publishing and build a more sustainable and collaborative global book ecosystem.

According to statistics in the latest ‘Turkey Book Market Report’ published by the Turkish Publishers Association, the country ranks sixth globally in publishing, having published 68,554 new books in 2019 of the total 423 million books that were published that year.