Communist Review - The Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industrial Revolution 4.0) is taking place at a fast pace and has a growing impact on many economic and technical sectors, including publishing. Faced with opportunities and challenges, the objective assessment of the current publishing activities under the impact of the Industrial Revolution 4.0 is an important basis for the development of new policies to this particular field.

The current situation of Vietnam’s Publishing

On the basis of 10-year results of implementing Directive No.42-CT/TW of the Secretariat of the Party Central Committee (9^th tenure) “On improving the comprehensive quality of publishing activities”, on December 29, 2016, the Secretariat issued Notice No.19-TB/TW, “Notice of the Secretariat's conclusion on the continued implementation of Directive No.42-CT/TW of the Secretariat of the 9^th Party Central Committee on improving the comprehensive quality of publishing activities”. The concluding notice specifies that: “Publishing activities have had many positive changes, keeping political orientation, adapting to market mechanisms, better meeting the people's reading needs, and contributing to building advanced Vietnamese culture, imbued with national identity. The contents, methods of leadership, direction and management of publishing activities have been renovated, promptly overcoming a number of limitations and shortcomings in publishing activities”. The Secretariat requires serious implementation of many important issues, including emphasizing the clear determination of responsibilities of all levels, sectors and localities for the publishing sector to develop in the right direction, fast and sustainable manner, meeting the requirements of the cause of national construction and defense and international integration; building a system of legal documents to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the state management to publishing activities; coordinating with related agencies in formulating schemes and programs to develop the publishing industry in the new era; focusing on strengthening the coordination between the agencies directing and managing publishing activities in the direction, administration and management of publishing houses, at the same time, consolidating the organization and perfecting the operation regulations of the publishing houses, clearly defining the authority and responsibilities of each working position, especially the responsibility of the leader... developing online publishing.

Implementing the Party's views and policies, the State's management, especially the Law on Publication 2012 and “Planning on development of publishing, printing of publications up to 2020, with a vision towards 2030” of the Prime Minister, the publishing industry has made important development steps. Publishing activities have developed in terms of scale and capacity, accordingly, in 2018, there were 33.9 thousand book titles with 372 million copies, increasing by 18% for book titles and 18.5% for books compared to those of 2017⁽¹⁾. Many high-quality volumes of various fields, such as political research, socio-cultural, science-technology, economic and economic management books in the period of international economic integration, etc have been published. Many publishers have made effective and profitable business, such as Youth Publishing House (VND 13,700 billion), National Political Publishing House (VND 19,722 billion), Kim Dong Publishing House (VND 30,350 billion), Vietnam Education Publishing House (VND 104,793 billion)⁽²⁾. In 2019, the revenue of the whole publishing industry was VND 2,775,127 billion (increasing by 10.7% compared to that of 2018), contributing VND 165,412 billion to the State budget (decreasing by 11.6% compared to that of 2018)⁽³⁾.

Much concern and investment have been made to the printing sector for development and technology modernization; the produce is diversified, meeting the needs of different subjects. The equitization process, the growth needs of economic sectors have facilitated a number of printing enterprises to expand investment, equip machines, modernize processes, improve production capacity, satisfy orders with strict technical and artistic requirements. The organizational structure of the printing industry has been rearranged. In 2019, the country had more than 1,900 industrial printing facilities (up 5.3% compared to that of 2018) in a total of more than 10,000 printing facilities. Print industry revenue was over VND96,000 billion (increasing by 5% compared to that of 2018). The profit of printing industry reached nearly VND 8,000 billion (increasing 4%), contributing VND 2,220 billion to the State budget⁽⁴⁾.

In the field of publication circulation, many units show fast growth rates, such as book publication joint stock companies in Ho Chi Minh City, Thanh Hoa, Ninh Binh, Ha Tinh, Nghe An, and Gia Lai Culture – Tourism Joint Stock Company... In 2019, the total print-run reached 440 million copies (an increase of 1.6% compared to that of 2018), the total revenue reached 3,462 billion VND (increasing by 3% compared to that of 2018)⁽⁵⁾.

Book import and export sector has achieved growth steps. The book market has been expanded to some countries: USA, Japan and Europe, new markets such as Italy, China and Singapore have been reached. In 2019, the total import and export turnover of books and newspapers reached US$27.45 million (increasing up nearly 4% compared to that of 2018), of which imports: US $ 23.25 million, exports: US$ 4.2 million⁽⁶⁾.

In recent years, online publishing has gradually spread and greatly influenced the spiritual life of readers. Readers, customers have more opportunities to access and select information, as well as have more choices of goods, services, brands in the market.

The promotion, organization of domestic book fairs and participation in international book fairs have attracted much interest and investment. The awareness of book publishing and publishing agencies and state management agencies on the role and importance of book promotion has shown positive changes. Book promotion activities, especially for book fairs in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, have attracted readers of all ages. Especially, the annual Vietnamese Book Day is not only limited to a number of large centers and cities but has been expanded to many localities (Hai Phong, Da Nang, Can Tho, Vung Tau)⁽⁷⁾. At the same time, Vietnam has actively participated in book promotion activities, such as La Habana International Book Fair in Cuba, in the Russian Federation; International Book Fair in Frankfurt, Germany; organize the introduction of Vietnamese books at Vietnamese Cultural Centers in France and the Czech Republic; a book exhibition in the United States on the occasion of “Meeting Vietnam” event.

The contingent of officials and employees working in the publishing industry has been further enhanced to adapt to the process of globalization and international integration. As of March 2018, nearly 1,300 editors across the country have been granted editor’s certificates. The publishing staff have, step by step, accessed advanced, dynamic and creative technologies, which have contributed greatly to the development of the publishing industry.

Opportunities and challenges for Vietnam's publication in the near future

Industry 4.0 is predicted to directly impact and change the entire “intellectual industry”, from market approach ways, publishing process, publishing methods, reading and perceiving methods from the reader side, copyright transactions, to the management of publishing and publishing culture⁽⁸⁾. Reality shows that Industry 4.0, with the combination of internet based technologies and artificial intelligence, is creating breakthrough in the whole publishing work, including leaps and bounds in the speed of production, sharing and spreading of publications. Publishing activities, from a real environment limited in space and time, gradually moving to the internet environment that helps publications reach readers around the world in the fastest and most convenient manner.

On the publishing side, the Industrial Revolution 4.0 provides an opportunity for the introduction of digital publications, digitalized printing on the basis of new technology, publishing and promoting of publications; after-sales services and supply chains have become more efficient; the trade costs have been reduced, facilitating market expansion and promoting publication growth. The transactions of book buying and selling and copyrights on a global scale have become faster and more convenient. Through the tracking of data of readers on the cyberspace, book publishing, printing, and circulation enterprises can collect vast amounts of data, thereby updating the needs of readers, to have new book titles, publication designs and marketing ways as well as publication work supply methods that satisfy readers’ tastes.

The internet-based promotion of publications contributes to promoting the image of the country, people and culture of Vietnam to the world, thereby, helping readers around the world have accurate information about our country's innovation achievements, further understand and love Vietnam, and the overseas Vietnamese community become more attached to their Motherland. In the opposite direction, Vietnam’s publishing industry has the opportunity to exploit and bring valuable foreign publications to Vietnam, serving the needs of domestic readers. These changes bring many opportunities and favorable conditions for the development of Vietnam’s publishing.

Apart from many advantages, Vietnam's publishing activities are also faced with many difficulties and challenges. As technology and automation develop, publishing units are facing with pressure on the need to improve product quality, acquire advanced and innovated technological lines, human resources qualified in high technology. Technology, human resources and capital resources of publishing units, especially the printing and publishing sector of Vietnam, are still quite small. The valuable works only account for a small rate. The capacity, scale and qualifications of publishers are still limited. The State direction and management of publishing in some aspects remain ineffective, especially online publishing management. Domestic publishing technology has not kept pace with the world's technological development trend during the period of the Industrial Revolution 4.0 and if there is new technology, domestic technical human resources are still incapable of meeting expertise requirements.

On the other hand, although the number of book titles and the print-runs have increased steadily year by year, there are a number of erroneous publications. In 2017, the Authority of Publication, Printing and Distribution handled 155 faulty publications (101 publications having errors in the content; 5 publications have spelling or lexical errors; 49 publications violating the provisions of the Publication Law). For the e-book segment, from 2016 to early 2020, the number of registered titles gradually decreased. The number of online books (titles) on the market was reduced: In 2016, the number of registered e-books was nearly 1,900, but in 2019, only 5 publishers were able to publish e-books with 92 titles registered⁽⁹⁾. This reality goes against the general trend of the world, as well as the needs of readers.

The above challenges and limitations are due to untimely appropriate solutions of a number of management agencies in creating favorable conditions for our publishing activities. Many new theoretical issues on publishing have not been studied and clarified. The coordination between the directing agency, the State management agency and the governing body of the publishing houses is still limited. State management in the field of publishing has not been implemented synchronously. Legal regulations in the fight against copyright infringement in our country remain limited. The capacity and qualifications of a number of publishing managers, editors and publishing workers have not yet met the requirements of publishing activities in the new context.

Facing this situation, in order for Vietnam's publishing industry to develop on the basis of taking advantage of opportunities and overcoming the difficulties from the impact of the Industrial Revolution 4.0, it is imperative to have a range of synchronous and concentrated solutions to focus on modernizing publishing activities with open information technology infrastructure; renovating the management of publishing activities towards the direction of strengthening the role of planning, orienting and building the legal system for publishing activities; planning, reorganizing and consolidate publishing, printing and publishing training establishments in the direction of professionalism and modernization; strengthening the inspection, examination and handling of violations; expand extensive international cooperation, coordination and integration in science and technology, publishing techniques in order to diversify publications, enhancing the internal capacity of Vietnam's publishing activities./.

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(1) General Statistics Office: Statistical Yearbook, summary 2018, p.391
(2) Authority of Publication and Printing: Report at the Conference on publishing work in 2018
(3), (5), (6) Authority of Publication, Printing and Distribution: Report at the Conference for Publishing work in 2019
(4) https://zingnews.vn/nam-2019-xuat-ban-400-trieu-ban-sach-doanh-thu-2600-ty-dong-post1032094.html
(7), (9) Central Communication and Education Committee: Conclusion of the Conference on the activities of the Publishing Sector in the first 6 months of 2019
(8) http://hvcsnd.edu.vn/home/nghien-cuu-trao-doi/dai-hoc-40/xuat-ban-voi-cuoc-cach-mang-cong-nghiep-40