49th Cairo International Book Fair closing ceremony today

CAIRO - 10 February 2018: The 49th Cairo International Book Fair will close on Saturday after 10 days of comprehensive cultural events.

The Egyptian Minister of Culture Ines Abdel Dayem will attend the fair’s closing ceremony. During the ceremony the winners of the fair will be announced in addition to featuring a play produced by the cultural production sector.

Some of the work of the late great veteran writer Abdel Rahaman el-Sharkawy will be read during the closing ceremony. El-Sharkawy was chosen to be the fair’s “person of the year” because of his work on the renewal of religious discourse and his renowned theatrical writing.

The 49th Cairo International Book Fair witnessed the attendance of a large number of people. The fair was launched on Saturday January 27 with the participation of 17 Arab countries and 10 other countries from around the world.

The Ministry of Education coordinated the first week of the second semester in tandem with the book fair’s second week as a “Reading Week”.

The art camp of this edition was given the name of the late great Egyptian artist Shadia. The 49th edition poster was designed by the book fair’s permanent committee in collaboration with the Egyptian Fine Arts Sector.

Farid Dahman, the deputy Algerian ambassador previously announced that about 10 percent of the participating publishing houses were Algerian. Algeria has been chosen as a guest of honor in this year’s fair, after Egypt was chosen as guest of honor for a similar fair in Algeria last year.

Haitham el-Hag, Head of the Egyptian General Authority for Books previously announced that the number of publishing houses participating in the Cairo International Book Fair has significantly increased this year in comparison to last year. “The increase in publishing houses’ participation in the 49th edition is 120 percent in comparison to last year,” el-Hag stated.

El-Hag added that about 144 new publishing houses are participating in the book fair this year for the first time.

“The Fair’s Authority suggested launching a second round of the book fair in October. From our side as the Egyptian General Authority for Books, we are ready to cooperate in the launching of any book fair. We are currently discussing this proposal,” el-Hag said.

The 49th edition hosted a berth of new activities for the first time, such as theater events, cinema halls and fine arts halls, in addition to increasing the number of books dedicated to children.

Al-Azhar also took part in the fair for the second year running. Its participation aims to communicate with the members of society to inform them about the efforts made to achieve peace and combat extremism and terrorism and also to brief them on the issue of Jerusalem.