Damascus-Sana
The number of publications published by the Directorate of Printing Press in the Syrian General Book Authority since the beginning of the year to date has reached 138 books out of the plan for the year 2020, which is limited to 220 books.
Despite the quarantine measures to confront the Corona pandemic and the effects of the terrorist war and the unfair siege on Syria, the Directorate of Printing Press has continued to issue books, magazines and periodicals dealing with various fields of creativity distinguished in quantity and quality.
Anas Al-Hassan, Director of the Authority's presses, said in an interview with SANA that the Directorate is working hard with all its cadres to overcome the difficulties to provide publications rich in its ideas and distinguished by its production produced by workers who provide more than their capacities under exceptional circumstances in order to compensate with their expertise the lack of resources and equipment and the high prices of paper and raw materials for the printing process The appropriations were reviewed, indicating that the directorate was able to bypass the work plan for the past year and issued 285 out of 220 books.
The authority's presses, according to Al-Hassan, publish the products of the directorates of the Book Authority, including children's publications, authorship, translation and heritage revival.
Al-Hassan hopes that the Directorate will be able to return to printing a thousand copies of each book, as it has been doing for a short time, as the current circumstances have reduced the number of copies to 500.
The authority's press publishes 14 magazines and periodicals, including those affiliated with the Ministry, such as Al-Ma'rifah, theater and cinematic life, children’s magazines Osama and Shama, and others, in addition to magazines affiliated with other bodies that it prints for free, such as Zahrat Al-Madaen of the Jerusalem International Foundation and the Association of Veterans and Friends of Damascus affiliated with the Damascus Friends Association.
Al-Hassan pointed out that the printing process takes place according to the availability of raw materials, especially in the current circumstances, for example, color printing suffers from a shortage of colored materials and tiles, and when they are secured, the priority is to print magazines because they must be issued on time.
Al-Hassan stresses that the war conditions caused a great shortage of manpower, and while the printing presses were working alternating shifts, today they are working in a single shift, indicating that efforts have been taken to fill this gap by creating a competition to select professional workers to compensate for retired workers or those whose circumstances forced them to leave work.
It is noteworthy that the Directorate of Printing Press was formed with the creation of the Book Authority in 2006 as a non-profit organization aiming to spread thought and culture at competitive prices.
Bilal Ahmad