37 countries to take part in 31st Doha International Book Fair

HE the Minister of Culture Sheikh Abdulrahman bin Hamad bin Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani touring the book fair venue Wednesday with the chief editors of the Qatari dailies.

The 31st edition of Doha International Book Fair will kick off Thursday at Doha Exhibition and Convention Centre with the participation of publishing houses from 37 Arab and foreign countries. The fair, which is organised by the Ministry of Culture's Qatar Cultural and Heritage Events Centre (QCHEC), will run until Jan 22 under the slogan "Knowledge is Light" to showcase the human journey of exploration and learning. The exhibition will introduce the latest and most recent publications that reflect humans' creative and reflective knowledge across all fields, offering a window of knowledge to researchers, innovators, scientists, and writers to develop societies and improve lives. In a statement, the Ministry of Culture underlined its readiness and the preparation of all facilities to welcome the visitors to this annual cultural event that highlights creativity and innovation in Qatar. The ministry stressed the keenness on presenting an extraordinary edition of Doha International Book Fair in terms of in quantity, form and quality, noting that the number of participations in this year's edition is the largest. Launched in 1972, Doha International Book Fair will mark its 50th anniversary this year, affirming Qatar's cultural leadership and its continuous efforts in spreading culture and knowledge. Its pavilions have been uniquely designed, allowing 430 publishers, as well as 90 indirect agencies to Arab and foreign publishers, to display their scientific treasures, which makes visiting the exhibition a real opportunity to learn about everything new in the world of creativity, literature and science. The United States will be the guest of honour at the fair in the framework of the Qatar-US Year of Culture 2021. This allows visitors to learn about the different aspects of American culture and intellectual production. The fair will also witness a large participation at the Gulf and Arab level, such as the participation of the GCC General Secretariat, the Ministry of Heritage and Culture of Oman, the Sharjah Book Authority, in addition to the ministries of culture of Morocco, Algeria, Sudan and Egypt, and distinguished participations of foreign publishing houses, mainly from the United States. There will be broader participations for the embassies of Palestine, Syria, Japan, South Korea, the Kyrgyz Republic, Indonesia and Russia, as well as the participation of Azerbaijan represented by the Ministry of Culture. The fair will be held from 9am to 10pm daily, and from 3pm to 10pm on Friday. All precautionary measures will be taken to ensure the safety and health of all.