Victor Yushchenko has visited the Vernadskiy Library in Kyiv to mark Ukrainian Literacy and Language Day, according to the President`s press-office.
In his speech, the President said it was incumbent on the government to ensure the “true competitiveness” of the Ukrainian language by supporting Ukraine’s publishers and mass media in order to create a profound Ukrainian-speaking community. He said the Ukrainian language could become a language of national communication “if its use is not imposed but encouraged and when it penetrates all aspects of everyday life." He promised to declare the year 2007 a book year.
Mr. Yushchenko viewed an exhibition of books “Ukraine’s Writing and Language: the Past and the Present” and attended a presentation of Ukraine’s dictionary database, which is the first Ukrainian digital dictionary comprising five dictionaries (paradigms, orthoepy, synonyms, antonyms and phraseology). The library also carries out research to create an academic lexicographical system “The Ukrainian Language Dictionary.”
Vernadsky Library Director General Oleksiy Onyshchenko gave Mr. Yushchenko a reader`s pass.
