Belarusian Information Minister Lilia Ananich
The Christmas Charity Book Ball has become a good tradition, Belarus’ Information Minister Lilia Ananich said at the opening of the book auction. According to the minister, every year more than 10,000 titles of books are published in the country, which makes over 2.3 books per citizen. “In the Year of the Book, the President of Belarus said that if we lose the publishing traditions, then we will lose the country. The Belarusian book publishing industry is guided by this principle. We have not lost the traditions, and today we start to celebrate the landmark date of next year, namely the 500th anniversary of the Belarusian book printing. Belarus has made a worthy contribution to the east Slavic book printing, and we strongly rely on the best book publishing traditions,” the minister said.