Klang Valley Striving to Be Asia’s E-Book Hub
06 March 2013
Malaysia’s deputy international trade and industry minister Mukhriz Mahathir challenged publishers at the ASEAN e-Book Conference 2012 in December to solve IP issues first before making the Klang Valley, an area comprising Kuala Lumpur and its suburbs, the e-book hub of Asia.
“The primary issue is IP. As such, it must be tackled first to encourage more authors to write and publish their works in digital form,” Mahathir told reporters after the conference.
Mahathir said he expects Malaysia’s e-book industry to experience massive development, similar to China and Japan, as the industry is still in its infancy. He added that emphasis must be given to national broadband infrastructure to enable Malaysia to become a producer of works meeting international standards.
Meanwhile, Abdul Wahab Ibrahim, the National Book Council of Malaysia director, said that the council and several relevant quarters were drawing up the blueprint for the industry’s growth, which will be forwarded to the government soon.
The target of 0.1% per one million population of e-book readers was taken as the benchmark to ensure that the industry served as a contributor to the national economy, said Ibrahim.
