The Ministry of Information’s Printing and Publishing Department and the Indian government signed an agreement yesterday at Lotte Hotel Yangon for the construction of Sarsobeikman, a literary centre.
Union Minister for Information U Maung Maung Ohn, India’s Ambassador to Myanmar Mr Vinay Kumar and relevant officials attended the event. During his speech, the Union minister highlighted the significance of the day as a symbol of the enduring friendship between the two countries, which dates back to 4 January 1948. He emphasized a traditional solid connection of historical, cultural, and literary bonds shared by Myanmar and India.
The Union Minister underscored that the proposed building aims to celebrate accomplished Myanmar writers and literature itself. In this building, historical, literary materials that everyone can study the history of Myanmar literature will be displayed. Moreover, palm-leaf inscriptions (Pe and Parabaik), hand-written scripts of famous Myanmar writers, their photographs and biographies, rare books, literary prize medals, and photographs of various types of printing presses that have been used for generations throughout the history of Myanmar printing will be showed as a gallery. Likewise, literary events such as literary conferences and seminars, literary award ceremonies, literary talk shows, writers-readers discussions, and book launching ceremonies will also be allowed in this building.
The Union minister continued that it will also open a modern reference library that will keep a collection of reference books that writers can easily use. Temporary lodgings will also be arranged for the writers and literary scholars to perform their literary matters. Sarsobeikman can be a place where international and Myanmar writers can meet and discuss copyright issues. Sarsobeikman will be established with great objectives for the authors’ benefit.
The Union minister expressed gratitude for the support provided by the Indian government for this construction project and expressed hope for future bilateral collaborations across various fields. Subsequently, Mr Vinay Kumar delivered an appreciation speech on behalf of the Indian government.
The project agreement was then signed by Director-General U Win Kyaw Aung of the Printing and Publishing Department and Deputy Chief of Mission Mr Ashish Sharma of the Indian Embassy in the presence of the Union minister and the Indian ambassador. The event concluded with a gift exchange, photo session, and gala dinner. — MNA/NT
