Pustaka Nasional started as a bookshop in the 1960s and published its first books in 1963. It also publishes translations of Arabic books into Malay as a form of spreading knowledge to those who cannot understand Arabic. It has also developed the madrasah school textbooks in 1996 which is still being used today. To date it has published over 1200+ titles.
The principal activities of PN lie in publishing quality children and Islamic books for the Malay community and serving the library market in Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei.
Syed Ali was involved at an early age in the family book business (Pustaka Nasional). Pustaka Nasional was the major Malay publishing company in Singapore since 1960s. He began with the editorial aspects of book production with reading manuscripts and proofreading galleys, including translations of works from Arabic and Bahasa Indonesia into Malay. After graduating from University, he worked as a finance executive at an NGO for 2 years. In 1994, he joined the family business as marketing Manager and then was promoted to Marketing Director in 2000. In 2006, he became CEO of Pustaka Nasional on the death of the founder. One of his key accomplishments is reviving PN’s publication of children’s books from local writers and books from other countries to be published in Malay. He had translated four children’s books into Malay.
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