The selection committee included representatives of the International Publishers Association (IPA), the International Booksellers Federation (IBF), the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), and UNESCO.

Says Alexis Krikorian, IPA Director, Freedom to Publish: “The number of applications received this year is one of the highest since the UNESCO program commenced in 2001 following an IPA initiative. A lot of them were very good. In that context, IPA was quite impressed by the quality of the application file submitted by the city of Incheon: a clear, exciting, and ambitious programme for 2015 and beyond as it is aiming at generating enthusiasm for books, e-books, and reading. We are very much looking forward to cooperating with our Korean member, the Korean Publishers Association. Congratulations Incheon!”.

Incheon, Korea, is the fifteenth city to be designated World Book Capital, after Madrid (2001), Alexandria (2002), New Delhi (2003), Antwerp (2004), Montreal (2005), Turin (2006), Bogotá (2007), Amsterdam (2008), Beirut (2009), Ljubljana (2010), Buenos Aires (2011), Yerevan (2012), Bangkok (2013) and Port Harcourt (2014).