TEHRAN -- Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi paid an unannounced visit to the Tehran International Book Fair on and visited different sections of the exhibition.
During the visit that happened on Saturday morning, publishers and other people explained their concerns to the president.
The 33rd Tehran International Book fair began 10 days ago and wrapped up on Saturday.
President of the event Yaser Ahmadvand and Finnish Ambassador to Iran Kari ‎Kahiluoto discussed potentials for cultural cooperation. ‎
“I was so interested to visit the place of the Tehran International Book Fair and I’m glad that I have found the opportunity. The people of Finland are also interested in reading both printed books and online books. Our country has produced many works of literature and there’s the center which introduces and publishes them,” Kahiluoto said.
“We don’t still have a program to attend the next edition of the Tehran International Book Fair but this event has a great potential and the number of Finnish books translated into Persian is remarkable, so we try to participate in the next edition and we will announce that three months before the opening of the fair,” the ambassador added.
Ahmadvand who is also the cultural deputy of the minister of culture and Islamic guidance said the Tehran International Book Fair is one of the biggest cultural events in the Middle East, which is visited by more than 3 million of visitors every year, including thousands of university students, scholars, and their families.
“This year, more than 2,800 publishers including 180 foreign publishers have attended the event,” he said.
The 33rd TIBF opened was held at the Mosalla (Grand Prayer ‎Grounds) of Imam ‎Khomeini in Tehran. The motto of the edition of the event which displayed over 30,000 titles of books ‎published in 27 countries was: “With Book, We Stay Safe”. Qatar with a group of publishers was the guest of honor of the event.