The opening ceremony for the massive annual event was attended by Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani as well as Culture Minister Seyyed Reza Salehi Amiri.
The fair will be open to public as of Wednesday May 03 at Shahr-e Aftab fairground which is playing host to the event for the second consecutive year.
With the motto of ‘Let’s Read One Book More’, the 30th Tehran Book Fair is scheduled to run for 10 days from 10:00 a.m. until 08:00 p.m. Tehran local time.
For the present year’s edition, Italy will be the guest country while the Turkish capital of Istanbul will play the guest city. Covering an area of 135,000 square meters, the Book Fair will showcase more than 4,000 titles by over 2,700 domestic and foreign publishers.
Addressing the opening ceremony, Deputy Italian Minister of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism Hon Antimo Cesaro conveyed the message of his country’s President Sergio Mattarella who felicitated his Iranian counterpart on opening of the prestigious cultural event.
“I am honored to extend my congratulations to President Hassan Rouhani on inauguration of Tehran International Book Fair which is hosting Italy as a special guest and I am also honored to recall that during our joint meeting in January 2017, we mulled over cultural issued in the course of bilateral dialogues,” reads the message.
Mr. Mattarella had also noted in his message that “paper reached West from East via the Silk Road and, in the meantime, paper and books have changed the world. Over centuries, Iranian and Italian nations have always exchanged knowledge and wisdom by the same means while playing a key role in consolidation of global civilization.”
Later, Hon Antimo Cesaro conveyed felicitation of his country’s Deputy Italian Minister of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism Dario Franceschini on the same occasion and quoted him as saying “presence of Italy at Tehran Book Fair marks a turning point in cultural relations between the two countries.”
Italy’s deputy culture minister said his country attached great importance to the Fair which is the largest of its kind in the Middle East. He underlined that Italy’s presence would not be limited to the fairground asserting “we have organized other cultural events which will take place across Tehran one being an exhibition of exquisite books from Anglican Church of Rome at the National Library of Iran.”
Cesaro also appreciated efforts of relevant bodies and organizations like Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Italian Publishers Association, Italy’s Embassy and the Italian Foreign Trade Office in Tehran and called for preparing grounds for cooperation of the Italian publishing industry with Iran.
Later at the ceremony, the commemorating stamp of the 30th Tehran International Book Fair was unveiled and signed by Ali Larijani and Seyyed Reza Salehi Amiri.
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