By Ron Chen, Correspondent ASEAN Region
The Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF) has emerged as the world’s largest book fair this year, attracting the participation of 546 publishers and literary agents from 83 countries looking to network, matchmake and do business with each other.
The Sharjah International Book Fair has attained this noteworthy global achievement for the first time in its 40-year history, marking a brand-new departure for the role of Emirati and Arab publishing sectors in the future development of the global publishing industry.
As the industry looks towards boosting efforts for its post-COVID recovery, publishing ecosystem stakeholders from around the world convened at one of SIBF’s professional programmes, the 11th SIBF Publishing Conference in the lead up to the book fair, which has been serving as a robust platform for over 10 years for buying and selling rights, signing book deals, exploring translations opportunities and serving other commercial interests of the sector.
Held under the theme ‘There’s always a right book’, SIBF 2021 continues to lead global efforts to resuscitate the publishing industry and boost its resilience after earning global recognition for organising a successfully hybrid edition during the pandemic in 2020.
Commenting on the achievement, Chairman of SBA, HE Ahmed bin Rakkad Al Ameri said: “The new record is a local, regional and international achievement that 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 who firmly believes that building strong societies and civilisations can only be achieved through knowledge and books.”
SIBF 2021 has proved its resilience by bringing together 1,632 publishers from 83 countries to exhibit 1.3 million unique titles, of which 110,000 are making their SIBF debut.
