UNESCO: Bangkok, Buenos Aires, Yerevan World Book Capitals

UNESCO: Bangkok, Buenos Aires, Yerevan World Book Capitals Paris, Jun 29. -Bangkok, capital of Thailand, was designated World Book Capital 2013 on Wednesday in a meeting held at UNESCO headquarters.

Buenos Aires and Yerevan were designated Book Capitals for 2011 and 2012, respectively.

World Book Capital is a title bestowed by UNESCO to a city in recognition of the quality of its programs to promote books and reading and the dedication of all players in the book industry.

The International Publishers Associations (IPA-UIE), International Booksellers Federation (IBF), International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA), and UNESCO issued the decision jointly.

UNESCO director-general Irina Bokova sent a message of congratulations to Bangkok, which has a population of nearly 6.5 million.

She described as rich and varied the program the city has prepared and committed itself to, placing a special emphasis on young people, marginalized groups and the development of reading for all.

The Paris Book Fair 2011 was devoted to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where numerous literary activities will take place during the rest of the year.

Yerevan, Armenia will be the venue for the World Book Fair in 2012.

Previous cities were Madrid (Spain, 2001), Alexandria (Egypt, 2002), New Delhi (India, 2003), Antwerp (Belgium, 2004), Montreal (Canada, 2005), Turin (Italy, 2006), Bogota (Colombia, 2007), Amsterdam (The Netherlands, 2008), Beirut (Lebanon, 2009) and Ljubljana (Slovenia, 2010). (Prensa Latina)