Problem of venue, paramount issue facing TIBF event – panel discussion told

1391/02/17-08:30

A senior cultural authority told a panel discussion on the status of Tehran International Book Fair (TIBF) Friday that authorities must now, more than ever consider setting a permanent venue for the landmark cultural event, according to TIBF press office.

Ali Akbar Ash’ari was speaking to a panel discussion on “a quarter of century of cultural Jihad” that aimed to review the performance of the book fair in the past and present. The panel discussion was staged in the ‘House of Authors’ section in Imam Khomeini Mosalla (grand mosque), the current temporary venue of the international event.

Mr. Ash’ari who serves as managing director of a major construction project north of Tehran, called ‘Baq Ketab’ (book garden), credited as a replacement for the TIBF’s current venue believed that taking the the realities on the ground into consideration, the project proves the best option to take the place of the Mosalla fairground.

The panel discussion also heard from Mohsen Parviz, cultural deputy with the University of Medical Sciences, Fat’hollah Forouqi, representative of Tehran’s Union of Publishers, Ali Reza Rabbani, Head of the Union of International Iranian Publishers, and Darioush Motallebi, who moderated the debate.

Mr. Ash’ari, as first panelist to speak, added that the problem of venue has been facing the international event from the very beginning 25 years ago as no available venue could afford to cater to the massive range of applications or public welcome to the fair.

Next, Mohsen Parviz built on Baq Ketab managing director’s speech and said that a 2007 relocation of the TIBF venue from a space-constrained Tehran International Permanent Fairground to the current position in Imam Khomeini Mosalla was an emergency decision and that it was time to consider specifying a permanent, deserving and accommodative venue for the international event.

Fat’hollah Forouqi, another panelist, raised the problem of publication taxes and expressed delight at a recent decision by the government to exempt bookshops nationwide from any taxes, declared in an opening ceremony of the TIBF event on May 1.

Mr. Forouqi said a primary objective of the TIBF event was to provide the ground for the public to get familiar with the culture and publications of other nations, adding that the objective has been fulfilled as the number of foreign publishers joining the international event has witnessed a steady growth year on year.

Ali Reza Rabbani as a final panelist turned to the issue of meager state subsidies allocated to international sector of the publishing industry, complaining that the size of state subsidies has been shrinking in the past few editions of the book fair leading to several shortfalls. He expressed hope the problem would be resolved in the next editions.

Baq Ketab project has been constructed in an area of 100,000 square meters in the northern district of Abbasabad in Tehran and is expected to come on stream before the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2013).