The International Publishers Association (IPA) has this month signed an MoU with the UNESCO-affiliated Regional Center for the Promotion of Books in Latin America and the Caribbean (CERLALC).
The MoU with CERLALC comes hard on the heels of similar MoUs signed with the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) and the African Publishers Network (APNET). Both were signed at the IPA Africa Seminar in Nairobi.
Quoting from the IPA press release, Cerlalc Director Marianne Ponsford said,
The agreement between Cerlalc and the IPA lays the foundations for a valuable route of joint work between the two entities. On the one hand, it will serve to strengthen copyright protection as a fundamental pillar for the development of the publishing industry, in particular, and the creative economy, in general. On the other hand, it will contribute to promoting studies that provide reliable and precise data on the publishing markets of Latin American countries. This information is scarce in the vast majority of countries in the region and is not only indispensable for decision making by agents in the private and public sectors, but also for highlighting the relevance of the sector as a driving force of the creative economy.
IPA Secretary General, José Borghino said,
We have been very happy to work with CERLALC in the past on data gathering projects like our VAT report and Industry Statistics. This agreement will take our work together even further and makes substantive results very realistic. CERLALC’S regional perspective and interdisciplinary expertise will allow us to work through our members to make the best of this MOU.
The press release notes that,
With 83 members in 69 countries, (the IPA) has within its members 9 national publishing associations from 9 countries in the region, as well as one associate member representing most of the countries in the Ibero-American region.
That said, the region of Latin America and the Caribbean comprises over fifty countries and territories, so there is a long way to go for the IPA to fully represent the region’s interests.
Read the IPA press release in full here.
See also:
