DUBAI // Book enthusiasts have praised a new law announced on Monday which gives employees the right to read during working hours and exempts reading materials from fees and taxes.
Announcing the legislation, President Sheikh Khalifa said: “Our goal is to prepare generations which work towards excelling and achieving the vision of the UAE, which since its inception has recognised the importance of knowledge, science and culture, and harnessed them in the best interests of the homeland and Emiratis”.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, announced the newly passed law on Twitter,hailing it “an unprecedented cultural and legislative initiative”.
Dubai school librarian Margaret Smallpeice said anything that removes obstacles to reading must be a good thing.
“Providing support for authors, publishers and distributors will improve access to books across the board,” she said.
Mrs Smallpeice applauded the establishment of a national reading fund and said she looked forward to seeing it in action.
“It will be interesting to see what sort of support the national fund will provide, will it fund author visits to schools, which would provide an income for authors and expose children to real writers? A good author visit has a massive effect on both reading and writing and generates a huge amount of enthusiasm among children.”
She hoped it would motivate the private sector to invest in establishing libraries, cultural centres and encourage shopping centres to offer competitive prices to support the public libraries.
Helene Demirci, chairwoman of the Mena Extensive Reading Foundation, called the law “absolutely wonderful.”
“Any opportunity that people are given to read — wherever and whenever — is positive, and it helps to raise awareness of reading within the workplace, or anywhere, which is absolutely fantastic,” said Ms Demirci.
“People have to see other people reading, as reading is caught not taught. When you see other people reading in coffee shops, it encourages you to pick up newspaper, magazines any kind of literature.”
Ms Demirci added she hoped the law would help in the production of more Arabic language books.
“Here having the relevant reading material available can be an issue,” said Ms Demirci. “The reading material should be made available in Arabic and the publishing companies should also address the issue — which they are doing.”
Emad Abu Eid, head of public libraries for Abu Dhabi Municipality, said the law was a critical element in building a knowledge-based economy.
“This is one of the most important steps toward transforming into a knowledge economy. As you know, the year 2016 is the Year of Reading, but the challenge is how can we move from celebrating reading into sustainable reading?
“This is the main challenge and by establishing a reading law, this is the most important step toward making reading sustainable and an excellent move toward building the knowledge economy of the UAE.”
Simon Cory-Wright, general manager of Bookworm, a children’s bookstore in Dubai, said the reading law demonstrates once again the “wise governance of Sheikh Mohammed”.
“Not only has he exempted all books and reading material from taxes, thereby removing a potential disincentive to their purchase, he has also actively encouraged reading from birth with the ‘Knowledge Briefcase’ and into adulthood by granting employees dedicated time to read during working hours.”
Librarian Delores Elliot-Wilson hailed the law as “wonderful news for schools and libraries”.
“Students and adults will benefit from this new law. As we all know teaching and working with children and adults that reading stimulates our minds, develops the imagination and affords us the ability to learn new things. This law is very important and will prove to be extremely valuable to society as a whole.”
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