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Iran's participation at 70th FBF one step forward
1397/07/24-08:20
CEO of Iran Cultural Fairs Institute believes that for different reasons Iran’s participation at the 70th Frankfurt Book Fair was one step forward and a successful accomplishment.
Amir Mas’oud Shahram-Nia, CEO of Iran’s Cultural Fairs Institute described Iran’s achievements in an interview held at the final hours of this year's Frankfurt book fair:
“We are pleased that by drawing on our past experiences, we took practical steps in our forth participation at FBF with a national stand, since earlier than that, we attended this event in the scattered stands.”
“Almost 18 Iranian publishers directly introduced their works in the national stand; moreover tree literary agencies and six publication unions were active in the national stand which represented 150 publishers that send 1500 books to be displayed at Frankfurt Book Fair. As well as providing information at the fair, we gave news about Iran’s participation at the event to the online media,” he said.
About the meetings and negotiations held in the 2018 Frankfurt International Book Fair, Shahram-Nia stated: “Many meetings and discussions were held during the event between Iranian officials and representatives and their foreign counterparts. The exact evaluation and results of the programs have yet to be announced, but I would say in general that compared to the last year, we had a 25% rise in the number of meetings and almost 200 negotiations on copyright business were held in the national Iranian stand. This year, the section of children and young adults’ books was next to the national stand. I suppose such an arrangement was a good experience since it helped both national stand and children and young adults section to be noticed better. The Iranian publishers of books for children and young adults were satisfied with the arrangement and the Iranian audience who visited the national stand also welcomed the event more than the previous editions.”
Elsewhere in his remarks, CEO of Iran’s Book Fairs Institute who is also the Deputy Director of Tehran International Book Fair (TIBF) referred to the agreements made with the officials of the other international book fairs and said: “We signed a memorandum of understanding with Taipei International Book Exhibition (TIBE) to exchange free stands which had been planned earlier. Based on the agreement, both parties would be able to participate in both book fairs without paying any charge for stands within five years. Moreover, every year a writer from Iran will attend TIBE and a Taiwanese writer will attend TIBF.
We negotiated the same agreements with Karachi International Book Fair in Pakistan for exchanging free stands and participation of publishers as well as writers from both countries at TIBF and Karachi Book Fair, as well as with Kuala Lumpur International Book Fair in Malaysia.
Discussions were also made with the President of Budapest Book Fair on more interaction between Tehran Book Fair and Budapest Book Fair. We met Chinese publishers as well who negotiated on strengthening cultural interaction between Iran and China.
Meanwhile, discussions with the officials of Torino Book Fair from Italy And Beijing International Book Fair in China were particularly significant since Iran is the guest of honor at the upcoming Torino Book Fair and China is the guest of honor of the 2019 Tehran International Book Fair.
The officials of Paris International Book Fair are also interested to have Iran as the guest country of honor or one of the Iranian cities as the guest of honor. At the final hours of the Frankfurt ,Book Fair, we had a meeting with the officials of the event for holding workshops.
Shahram-Nia further said: “One of the other achievements of this edition for us was the distribution of the letter by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution [Ayatollah Ali Khamenei] addressed to the European young people. Moreover, several Iranian publishers engaged in religious or the Sacred Defense books including Soureh Mehr, Shahrestan Ad
ab, The Center of Quranic Researches, Publishers of the Sacred Defense Books Society and the Society of the Islamic Revolution Publishers attended the Frankfurt book event.”
Regarding all these accomplishments and measures taken by Iran as well as the tranquility which dominated the national stand, we can conclude that our participation at the Frankfurt Book Fair compared to the previous edition was one step ahead, although we also faced some problems in terms of providing visa for a number of Iranian publishers, representatives and journalists. However, we could resolve the complications and fortunately, visas were finally issued for the majority of them.
