Kumasi, Nov. 27, GNA 96 Publishers and printers in the country have been called upon to improve on the quality of their work to attract more clients.

Mr Nicholas Graham a PHD student of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), who made the call, said aiming at higher quality work would not only lead to authors printing their works in the country but would also attract jobs from other countries.

Mr Graham was presenting a paper at a seminar on the theme, 93the publishing and the golden age of business=94 in Kumasi.

The seminar, which is an annual event dubbed, 93time with the Masters=94, was organised by the Liaison Office for Industrial and Professional Relations (IPR) of the college of Arts and Social Sciences of the KNUST to bring together the academia and industry to interact and share experiences.

Mr Graham stated that the book industry, if given the necessary boast stood the chance of turning the economy of the nation around since apart from creating employment it could also earn the nation some foreign exchange.

He challenged printers in the country to adopt pragmatic measures that would enable them to compete effectively with their foreign counterparts and sustain the book industry, which looked lucrative but lacked the financial and manpower support in the country.

Mr. Ralph Nyadu-Addo, Liaison Officer for IPR, who also presented a paper on Total Quality Management (TQM) in the Department of Publishing Studies, blamed indiscipline on the part of students, lack of long-term strategic planning, lack of infrastructure and teaching and learning materials as some of the challenges facing TQM in the department. He called for TQM to be applied to the core businesses of higher education institutions, especially teaching and learning, research and services, adding that there was the need to organise fora to kick start TQM in all departments of the university.

Mr Nyadu-Addo said plans were far advanced for each student of the department to attend at least one international fair before graduating to expose them to the real publishing business world.

Mrs Vesta Adu Gyamfi, Dean of the Faculty of Industrial Art, who chaired the function urged publishers and printers in the country to search for information on current trends in the industry to meet the growing demand.

She commended the authorities of the College of Arts for the programme and called for more of such activities to upgrade the knowledge of both lecturers and students.