Hosted by the World Intellectual Property Organization (Secretary-General TANG Daren, WIPO) and the Korean Publishers Association (President YOON, Cheol-Ho, KPA) and supported by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (Minister HWANG Hee, MCST), the 'Performance Coaching Program With Asian Publishers within the Publishers Circle Initiative' was held via online from November 16 to 18. This initiative, part of MCST and WIPO copyright trust fund project, was designed to strengthen the capabilities of policy makers and private publishers in developing Asian countries.[1]

For this year’s workshop, approximately 30 publishing industry policymakers, officials, and staff from six countries[2], including Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam were joined virtually. Overseas participants showed high interest in Korea's publishing industry and the copyright system introduced during the program. This year, government ministries in charge of copyrights from four countries[3], publishing associations from three countries[4], and 11 private publishers from six countries were actively engaged.

The workshop began with the opening remarks by MCST Director, the President of KPA, and WIPO Deputy Director. Director Choi from MCST emphasized that due to the Pandemic, the non-face-to-face environment could serve as a new opportunity to contribute to the publishing industries. The themes of the presentations included Korea’s policy support for the publishing industry presented by MCST, Digital transformation of the publishing industry, Global value chain of the publishing industry and our challenges, and Publisher management efficiency improvement, marketing issues, and copyright issues. MCST introduced the current state of the Korean publishing industry from a national perspective on the publishing industry, and provided an overview of major publishing related institutions, systems, government policies, and future tasks. 

In addition, various presenters participated with discourses on the lessons learned from the past two years, including improvising design and customer management. Thailand participants shared the experience of developing its own online education platform on new trends and opportunities in creative production and distribution of publications. The Central Eastern European Copyright Alliance (CEECA) gave an in-depth explanation of the history and main content of the international copyright related treaties.

WIPO Director GAO Hang said that based on the lessons learned, each country seeks better opportunities, showing the project with successful results. It is highly expected that the good cooperation between KPA and private publishing industries will be productive and strengthen in the future.