President Viktor Yanukovych has ordered the government to create favorable conditions for the development of book publishing in Ukraine and reducing the prime cost of the production of national books.
The order “On certain measures regarding state support for book publishing and the promotion of reading in Ukraine” of June 19 has been posted on the president’s Web site.
According to the order, the Cabinet of Ministers must create a system of state grants for publishers to print works of Ukrainian writers translated into foreign languages for sale abroad, as well as work on issues of ensuring state support for publishing entities that produce, publish and sell goods in the state language through the mechanism of reducing the price of credits.
Moreover, the government was charged with considering the prolongation until 2019 of tax breaks for publishing entities, improving the law fighting the spread of counterfeited books, also when using electronic data medium, and using social advertising to promote reading in Ukraine.
The head of the state instructed the Cabinet of Ministers to speed up preparations and put up for consideration at the Verkhovna Rada a bill on Ukraine’s joining the agreement on imports of education, scientific and cultural materials, and the protocol to it.
Yanukovych ordered the government and regional state administration by September 1 to analyze the situation with providing the population with book trade services, and resolve the present problems.
