Sharjah: His Highness Dr. Shaikh Sultan Bin Mohammad Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, has announced a full fee exemption for 58 Syrian publishing houses participating in the 31st edition of the Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF).
The fee exemption would amount to a total of Dh500,000.
Syrian publishing houses participating in this year’s book fair are keen to prove their cultural presence despite the conflict back home, said Ahmad Bin Rakkad Ameri, director of SIBF.
Esmail Kurdish, chairman of the Arabian Exhibition Committee and the International Federation of Syrian Publishers, thanked the Ruler of Sharjah for his kind gesture and explained the difficulty publishers faced when transporting books to the fair.
Kurdish also thanked the exhibition organisers for facilitating the visa issuing process for Syrian participants.
Along with Kurdish, other publishers such as Ruslan Aladdin also highlighted the importance of participating in the SIBF as an “international cultural forum that plays a role in the dissemination and exchange of cultures through the written word.”
