Page 19 - ELITE PLUS MAGAZINE VOL4

Dougal Thomson, IPA director of communications and programmesJens Bammel, secretary general of the IPAMs Trasvin Jittidecharak, chairs the Organizing Committee for the 30th IPA Congress 2014‘Now people in the industry see problems with digital technology because the technology changes so fast and new versions get outdatedso quickly that people can’t keep up’“There was once talk that the e-book would replace paper books by 2008,” she said. “But physical books are still here. Now people in the industry see problems with digital technology because the technology changes so fast and new versions get outdated so quickly that people can’t keep up. Libraries in Europe that invested a lot of money on e-book technology face numerous challenges.”Owner of respected Silkworm Books and a Chiang Mai-based expert in Thai academic and literary books in English, Ms Trasvin said the publishing industry in Thailand still has room to grow and improve.The birth of the publishing industry in the West started when Germanblacksmith Johannes Gutenberg invented a printing press in 1439, she said. That gave a push for printing and publishing houses in Europe and made the continent the cradle of the publishing industry. In Thailand, the industry really only began after World War II as a small offshoot of the newspaper industry. It was not until the ’70s – a time when freedom of expression flourished – that local publishers selling only books emerged.For Ms Trasvin, the Thai publishing industry has proved to be quite independent and responsible for its own growth. While other industries such as agriculture, energy and industry have policy support and government subsidies, publishersElite+ 17