Mustafa Jabbar urged publishers for publishing Digital Books

Posts and Telecommunications Minister Mustafa Jabbar advised publishers to come forward to publish digital books in addition to paper books. The minister made this call at a function organized by Exim Bank on the occasion of distributing Humayun Ahmed Literary Award 2023 at the Abdul Karim Sahithyabisharad Auditorium of Bangla Academy. While speaking as the chief guest at the meeting held on Friday evening, he said that although modern Bengali literature and Bengali publications have been discovered and developed in West Bengal, Bangladesh is the capital of Bengali language for the 350 million Bengali speakers of the world. Bangladesh has standardized the Bengali encoding and keyboard standards in digital technology. Government is working to develop 16 tools for Bengali language.

Prof. Md. Zafar Iqbal, writer Imdadul Haque Milan, actress Meher Afroz Shawon, the Anya Din editor Mazharul Islam, Additional Managing Director of Exim Bank Shah Md. Abdul Bari and young writer Mahbub Mayukh Rishad spoke at the program chaired by Emeritus Prof. Syed Manjurul Islam.

Urging the publishers present at the event to come forward in digital publishing, Mustafa Jabbar said that the big problem of the publishers was marketing. Due to the establishment of Digital Bangladesh, that crisis does not prevail anymore. Because before desktop publishing, typography made of lead was the technology of the printing industry, followed by photo typesetters. Bangladesh is the first country in the world to publish using tracing papers. That is why I got success after long efforts. As a result, where 120 people were needed to publish an 8-page magazine, only 20 people could suffice to do the same task. As a result, revolutionary changes were initiated in the publishing industry. It is fortunate for me that one hundred percent of the books published in the country's paper are printed with letters of my own creation.

After his speech, the Minister handed over the Humayun Ahmed Literary Award 2023 to the winners.

Humayun Ahmed Literary Award 2023 has been awarded to two writers of two generations. Imdadul Haque Milan received the award for overall contribution to literature. Besides, Mahbub Mayukh Rishad received the award in the new literature category. In 2015, the 'Exim Bank-Anyadin Humayun Ahmed Literary Award' has been launched. In 2015, Shaukat Ali and Sadia Mahjabeen Imam received the award in these two categories respectively. Hasan Azizul Haque and Swakrit Noman in 2016, Jyotiprakash Dutt and Mozaffar Hossain in 2017, Rizia Rahman and Fatima Rumi in 2018, Rabeya Khatun and Sadat Hossain in 2019, Hasnat Abdul Hai and Nahida Nahid in 2020, Selina Hossain and Fatima Abedin in 2021 and Anwara Syed Haque and Maury Maryam were awarded in 2022.