Another important meeting of the UNESCO World Book Capitals network has begun in Tbilisi. Andria Basilaya, the deputy Mayor of the capital, opened the meeting on its first day.
The Deputy mayor of Tbilisi, while addressing the attendees, said, ” Many projects implemented in 2021 under the project” World Book Capital” turned out to be extremely important for our city, country and society. I would like to thank UNESCO which entrusted us with its implementation. I am also very sure that the networking meetings will address the new ideas and challenges.”
He further added that “ Tbilisi City Hall and our entire team are great supporters of this project and we will continue our cooperation in the future. I would like to thank the representatives of all the network member cities for their visit to this meeting being held in the Capital of Georgia, and I wish success to Strasbourg, the World Book Capital of 2024.”
On this occasion the participants of the network meeting were also welcomed by the head of the UNESCO World Book Capital project Ian Dennison and the director of the Tbilisi Multipurpose Libraries Association and the project “Tbilisi – World Book Capital” Ninia Macharashvili.
Ninia Macharashvili, director of the union of multi-functional libraries of Tbilisi and the project “Tbilisi – World Book Capital stated that “This meeting will allow us to plan important international initiatives during the next term of 2024-25 which will develop the field of books, contribute to raising the level of literacy in society and help vulnerable groups to have equal opportunities to receive information and education.”
This is the second time when Tbilisi is hosting the meeting of UNESCO World Book Capitals. The first meeting was held in April 2022, when Tbilisi completed the “World Book Capital” project. Similarly in the next year of 2023it was held in the Polish city of Wroclaw.
The main objective of the project is to make the ties strong between the future and existing book capital cities of the world.