On 10 November, the 18th National Joint Conference of Library Directors of Provinces, Autonomous Regions, Municipalities and Large Cities was held in Liuzhou, Guangxi. Rao Quan, a member of the CPC Committee of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and Deputy Minister, attended the conference and delivered a speech. 

Rao Quan said that public libraries at all levels had achieved important results. On behalf of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, he expressed high respect to the vast number of librarians who had been working hard on the front line for a long time! He pointed out that in future work, we should continue to strengthen the preservation, inheritance and revitalization of ancient books, accelerate the implementation of the national smart library system construction project, actively promote nationwide reading, improve management and service levels to further promote the high-quality development of the national public librarianship.

Chen Ying, Secretary of the CPC Committee of the NLC and Deputy Director of the NLC, made a keynote speech on "grasping the new situation and tasks, presenting the new atmosphere and new achievements, and jointly promoting the high-quality development of the librarianship in the new era." She introduced the key work and the future working plan of the NLC in actively playing a leading role in the library community since the beginning of the 14th Five Year Plan from three aspects, i.e. "focusing on continuing Chinese cultural heritage, promoting the creative transformation and innovative development of excellent traditional Chinese culture", "promoting transformation and innovation, and deepening the implementation of the national smart library system construction project", "continuously promoting innovation in nationwide reading, and creating a high-quality public cultural service platform that supports lifelong learning for citizens". 

Leaders from Shanghai Library, Nanjing Library, Jiangxi Provincial Library, Library of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Shaanxi Library, Shenzhen Library and Hunan Provincial Library of Juveniles and Children, gave speeches on high-quality development ideas and experiences during the 14th Five-Year-Plan period. Afterwards, the attendees were divided into four groups and engaged in discussions around the conference theme. Leaders from Guilin Library, Zhejiang Library, Shandong Library and Shanghai Children's Library, gave presentations as group representatives.

Chen Binbin, Director of the Public Service Department of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Wei Ji, Deputy Director of the Finance Department of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Gan Lin, Secretary of the CPC Committee of the Department of Culture and Tourism of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Deputy Minister of the Publicity Department of the CPC Committee of the Autonomous Region, Zhang Zhuang, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Committee and Mayor of Liuzhou City, as well as principals of libraries in various provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the central government, and larger cities, attended the conference. Huo Ruijuan, Deputy Director of the NLC, presided over the conference.