(MENAFN- The Peninsula) By Mohammed Osman | The Peninsula
Under the theme 'Towards Conscious Society with an authentic conscience and a healthy body, the 28th Doha International Book Fair 2017 will kick off on Wednesday (November 29) and will continue until December 5 at Qatar National Convention Center (QNCC).
The book fair this year will host 29 Arab and foreign countries attracting around 400 publishing houses from across the world.
This was announced in a press conference held yesterday at the National Theatre and attended by the Minister of Culture and Sports H E Salah bin Ghanem Al Ali, and other senior officials of the ministry.
Many publishing houses have approached the ministry to take part in the exhibition but due to lack of enough spaces the organizers could not meet their requests, said H E the Minister Al Ali. In regard to reduction of the this year book fair duration, he said: 'We made it seven days instead of ten days, and this will be under experimentation. He further said that exhibition duration of many international book fairs did not go beyond five days.
Ibrahim Abdulrahim Al Buhashim, Director of Public Libraries and Heritage at the Ministry of Culture and Sports, who is also Director of the Doha International Book Fair, presented during the press conference details of the participating publishing houses which include 82 children's books publishing houses, 241 Arab publishing houses, 26 foreign countries publishing house and 24 delegated representatives.
The Doha International Book Fair is one of the biggest international book fairs held in the region and is having a good reputation because of the huge number from the Arabic, Gulf and foreign countries participating in the event. Its first session was in 1972 and it was being organized each 2 years but since 2002 it became a yearly event. Al Buhashim added that the book fair will showcase a total of 18185 titles out of which some 15423 are Arabic and 2762 titles on other foreign languages. The book fair has online guide on Arabic and other foreign languages and includes titles and names of the publishing houses.
There will be a discount of 25% on book prices and we have agreed with exhibitors, Al Buhashim told The Peninsula at the sideline of the event.
The Federal Republic of Germany, represented by its culture is the guest of honour of the exhibition as part of the celebration of the events of the cultural year Qatar-Germany 2017, he added, noting that the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Turkey will participate extensively as well as a number of Turkish publishing houses, besides distinguished contributions from China, Iran, India, Malaysia and others.
He said due to lack of space and high number of participants, there are more than 17 publishing houses on the waiting list so far. At the Arab level, we have a distinguished participation from Jordan, which includes about 48 publishing houses, Oman and Kuwait as well as Maghreb countries, Sudan, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, he stressed.
Furthermore Al Buhashim pointed out that the Book Fair has some 760 stands and some 93 government bodies including the Ministry of Culture and Sports, Ministry of Education and Higher Education, Ministry of Economy and Commerce and Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics will take part in the cultural event along local institutions, publishing houses and bookshops.
The 28th Doha International Book Fair will witness the Second Youth Forum, to inform the youth of what has been done so far, as well as listen to their ideas in a way that promotes youth work and provide platforms to share opinions, said Abdurrahman Al Hajri, Director of Youth Affairs at the Ministry of Culture and Sports. Organizing Second Youth Forum on the sideline of the Book Fair is to take the advantage of the momentum of the event where considerable number of youth visit the exhibition, said Al Hajr speaking at the press conference.
Another event will be hosted at the sideline of the Book Fair is the Qataris Writers' Forum, said Ibrahim Al Sada. The forum was established four months ago and in its membership have Qataris and expatriates.
'We are going to take the advantage of this great event for authors to introduce the forum and we are going to arrange signature of around 100 books ate the sideline, Al Sada added.
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