World Book Capital City 2007

Based on the positive experience of World Book and Copyright Day, launched in 1996, UNESCO initiated the concept of World Book Capital City and nominated Madrid as the Capital for Year 2001. Following this successful experience, the General Conference adopted, on 2 November 2001, the 31 C/Resolution 29, establishing the yearly nomination of the Book Capital City.

The International Publishers Associations (IPA-UIE), the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) and the International Booksellers Federation (IBF) are associated to this initiative and are therefore represented with UNESCO in the nominating committee, so as to guarantee appropriate representation from the international organisations representing the three major sectors of the book industry.

The city of Bogotá was nominated as World Book Capital 2007 for the following reasons:

* comprehensiveness of the bid;
* presence of several specific initiatives for the World Book Capital City 2007 programme, including creative activities for the promotion of reading;
* involvement of all local public and private stakeholders in the book sector.

For the first time two applications from a region of the world which had so far not been represented (Latin America).

Amsterdam (the Netherlands) will be World Book Capital City 2008.

Previous World Book Capitals

2001: Madrid
2002: Alexandria
2003: New Delhi (India)
2004: Antwerp (Belgium)
2005: Montreal (Canada)
2006: Turin (Italy)

Source: UNESCO