A meeting chaired by Minister of Culture and Information Arman Kyrykbayev was held in Astana to discuss the progress of the national 'Reading Nation' (Kitap Oqityn Ult) marathon. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Sputnik Kazakhstan.
The meeting focused on the interim results of the marathon and upcoming measures to widely promote reading.
According to the ministry, more than 1.4 million people are currently participating in the project. They include schoolchildren, students, teachers, families, representatives of labor collectives, civil servants and members of the creative intelligentsia.
Project offices have been established in all regions, and a unified list of 345 literary works in Kazakh and Russian has been compiled. The digital platform reading-nation.kz is also operational. Participants publish reviews of the books they read on the platform.
In terms of the number of published reviews, Aktobe region leads with 25,557, followed by North Kazakhstan region with 14,249 and Kyzylorda region with 14,037 reviews. Of the nearly 20,000 registered participants in North Kazakhstan region, more than 14,000 have written reviews on the platform. This accounts for approximately 75% of participants in the region.
More than 20,000 video reviews about read works have been published on social media. Astana and Zhambyl region are leading in this indicator – with about 3,000 publications in the capital and 1,699 in Zhambyl region.
At the meeting, regional representatives shared their experience in increasing reader activity. Special attention was paid to developing a reading culture in rural areas, making books accessible to the public, and engaging public figures, business representatives and the creative intelligentsia in the marathon.
Proposals included placing special book shelves in stores, holding meetings with writers, developing comics based on literary works, and producing trailers and short videos presenting books. It was also proposed to launch the regional media project 'Kitap Talks' and organize 'Kitap Quiz' intellectual games.
As part of the 'Ticket with a Book' initiative, it is planned to place information about the marathon and QR codes on electronic tickets and information materials of cultural institutions. To promote reading, it was proposed to use the capabilities of libraries, higher education institutions, regional creative hubs and public spaces.
At the conclusion of the meeting, tasks were set to improve coordination of regional project offices, widely engage the population in the marathon and systematically monitor its results.