Jakarta hosts RI's first book center

The Jakarta Post , Book's Fair

A publishers group has set up a book center in Jakarta with the goal of helping the publishing industry and encouraging more people to read.
The Indonesian Book Center, being called the first of its kind in the country, will serve as a meeting point for writers, publishers, distributors, suppliers, book fair organizers and book lovers.
"The book center adopts a one-stop shopping approach, so book lovers can buy books here, read them here and meet publishers," said Setia Dharma Madjid, chairman of the Indonesian Publishers Association (IKAPI), which established the center.
"For new writers, it's a great chance for them to offer their work. New writers often go door-to-door, from one publisher to another, offering their manuscripts.
"Now, they can just go to the book center. They can also launch their books here," Setia said.
Vice President Jusuf Kalla opened the center Friday at the Kelapa Gading Trade Center in North Jakarta. The opening was also a delayed celebration of National Book Day, which fell on May 17.
"Books are vital to improving our knowledge. Through the Indonesian Book Center, I hope people will begin to realize that reading books is a good habit," Kalla said during the opening ceremony.
"The problem is that Indonesians tend to judge a book by its cover. People, including myself, demand books with glossy covers and white pages. So, publishers should be smart in designing their books to attract readers," he said.
Setia said people needed to rethink their perceptions of books.
"Many people still consider books as expensive because their purchasing power is still low. As a matter of fact, book prices in Indonesia are actually lower than in other countries," he said.
Setia said the establishment of the center was a dream coming true for IKAPI.
"There are many garment centers or cell phones centers in the country but there wasn't a book center. That is sad.
"We have been working a long time to materialize this dream, but it was hard to find a building developer who wanted to cooperate with us and provide a cheap place to accommodate hundreds of IKAPI members," he said.
"The Kelapa Gading Trade Center developer is not charging any rent from the publishers for the first year, while for the second year publishers can begin to buy the outlets with soft loans."
Setia said that out of the 793 publishers registered with IKAPI, 200 have each taken one of the 350 outlets available at the book center.
"We realize the center is not large enough to accommodate all IKAPI members. But this is just a start and we hope we can develop the center in the future," he said.
Setia said the IKAPI was cooperating with 60 schools in the area to have students visit the center.
"Every three months, we will also hold book fairs with different themes. Next July, in conjunction with Children's Day, we will have a children's book fair.
"We also plan to build a big library where visitors can read books.
"We will later provide a computerized database so visitors can easily download book information," he said.
He said it would be helpful if the government supported the book industry by ensuring lower paper prices that would enable readers to get quality books for less.
The Indonesian Book Center is on the third floor of the Kelapa Gading Trade Center. It is open daily from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. (trw)