Al-Toraifi opens Riyadh Book Fair 2016

RIYADH: Under the patronage of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman, Minister of Culture and Information Adel Al-Toraifi inaugurated Riyadh International Book Fair 2016 on Wednesday.
A large audience attended the opening ceremony at the Riyadh Center for Exhibition and Conference, including top Ministry of Culture and Information officials, diplomats and representatives of local and international publishing houses along with the general public.
Around 500 local and international publishers and countries are participating in the fair, displaying a wide variety of books on science, technology, history, literature, politics, religion, languages, geography, medicine, engineering and education.
Many countries are participating in the 10-day event with national booths of different sizes, with Greece having a large pavilion as guest of honor country at the middle of the fair venue.
The United States is one of the major participating countries. “First, I would like to congratulate Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman and Ministry of Culture and Information for professionally organizing this large event. We are very happy to participate in this major Saudi culture event because of its importance to our bilateral cultural relations,” US Cultural Attaché David Edginton told Arab News.
He said that the US booth will display many books on American culture, history and biographies of prominent Americans.
“The fair is a good opportunity for us and all participants and visitors to exchange ideas and information freely,” Edginton said.
The fair, seen as one of the largest yearly cultural events not only in the Kingdom but in the whole Middle East, aims to facilitate and promote exchanges between authors, publishers and all responsible for promoting the culture of reading.
The ministry has set strict rules to protect intellectual property at the fair. Other rules include warnings against displaying or selling any books or cultural materials not approved by the ministry.