Sharjah International Book Fair 2021 named "the world’s largest book fair"

From Siti Baaqiah Mamat

SHARJAH (United Arab Emirates), Nov 6 -- The Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF) 2021, a platform that has engaged the largest number of publishers, has been named the world’s largest book fair, announced its organiser, Sharjah Book Authority (SBA).

SBA chairman, Ahmed bin Rakkad Al Ameri, said that SIBF has earned the title of the world's largest book fair for the first time since its inception in 1982. 

He added that the global recognition followed the success of one of the SIBF’s professional programmes, the SIBF Publishers Conference, which has attracted the participation of 546 publishers and literary agents from 83 countries, looking to network, matchmake and do business.

“As the global publishing industry looks towards boosting efforts for its post COVID-19 recovery, the multitude of commercial prospects presented by SIBF’s robust professional programme has proved to be even more desirable for industry stakeholders, for both business interactions and knowledge exchange.

“Held under the theme 'There's always a right book', SIBF has been leading international efforts to enable the publishing industry to chart its post-pandemic recovery, and earned global recognition for organising the 39th edition successfully during the pandemic last year,” he said.

Al Ameri said that the new record reflected the fruition of SIBF’s efforts and a qualitative step towards the full recovery of the publishing and creative industries worldwide.

Commenting on the achievement, Al Ameri said that the 40th edition of the SIBF recording local, regional and international achievement, could not have been realised without the continuing support of Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, His Highness Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi.

He said that His Highness firmly believed that building strong societies and civilisations can only be achieved through knowledge and books.

“The world-renowned event has proved its resilience by bringing together 1,632 publishers from 83 countries to exhibit 15 million books, which includes 1.3 million unique titles, of which 110,000 are making their SIBF debut.

“This accomplishment follows a series of recent achievements by Sharjah and SIBF. They include being accorded Guest of Honour status at several international book fairs, including Paris, Moscow, Madrid, New Delhi and Sao Paulo, apart from organising the biggest international event held during the pandemic last year,” he said.

The 40th edition of SIBF, organised by SBA at the Expo Centre Sharjah, is currently ongoing until Nov 13, and displays more than 15 million books from different countries.

-- BERNAMA