On Thursday, Minister of Culture Dr. Enas Abdel Dayem said that the 52nd edition of the Cairo International Book Fair (CIBF) saw a vast progression, in addition, it is an exceptional edition.
During her interview aired on the official platform of the fair, the minister highlighted that Haitham El-Hag, the director of the event, succeded in enhancing the CIBF's development which started with changing its venue to Egypt International Exhibition Center.
She continued that COVID-19 is a real challenge, and the all Culture Minister teams insisted to organize this year's Cairo Book Fair instead of canceling or postponing it to next year. Regarding choosing 30th June for opening the event, the minister described that this date is significant for all Egyptians as it reminds them of the 30 June Revolution.
Abdel Dayem explained the updates the event reflects this year such as the digital platform and the launching of an online service for booking the tickets. "This step was taken as the whole state is starting to enhance the digital transformation for all services. And, we decided to encourage all people to use the digital way for booking the tickets, so we decided to keep all online-booked tickets for free for this edition," the minister underscored.
She also expressed that there are various facilities for the Lebanese publishers that reflect Egypt's support to Lebanon in the light of the harsh crisis the Arab state witnesses.
Next, the minister reviewed the Culture Ministry's steps towards digital transformation including the newly-launched Youtube channel.
The ministry launched this channel during the COVID-19 lockdown in Egypt to stream various cultural activities including concerts, and opera performances. Abdel Dayem highlighted that this channel helped the officials to unveil the forgotten "treasures" of the minister's archive.
Abdel Dayem added that all institutions of the ministry cooperated together for discovering the stored and recorded material of the ministry's including concerts, interviews, seminars, and opera performances, however, the officials discovered that there are some cultural periods that were not recorded or documented, so she directed all institutions to document all events and activities.
She also talked about "Your Book...Your Knowledge" (Thaqaftak Kitabak). She said that the ministry started this initiative at Faisal Book Fair and it was a successful initiative as a huge number of young people, in addition, several publishers combined forces with the ministry. So, the ministry decided to launch it officially in the CIBF.
The 52nd edition CIBF kicked off on Wednesday, and the opening was attended by Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and Abdel Dayem. The event will last until June 15.
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