The activities of the 25th edition of the International Book Fair in Algiers (SILA), which is the most prominent event in the Algerian cultural scene, concluded yesterday evening, Friday, after eight days of rich activities in the fields of literature and history that witnessed a record influx of the public and the number of exhibitors.
About 1,250 exhibitors from 36 countries, including Italy, as a guest of honor, proposed to the public at least 300,000 books during this exceptional edition, which marked the return of the salon after a two-year absence imposed by the Coronavirus pandemic.
Record participation encouraged by the initiative of the President of the Republic, Mr. Abdelmadjid Tebboune, to exempt all participants from the costs of renting suites in order to allow publishers to resurrect their activities, after two difficult years due to the effects of the pandemic.
This initiative, which was accompanied by an exemption from customs rights, translated into the efforts of participating publishers to propose books at affordable prices with discounts that for some publishers reached 40 percent.
According to the salon’s governor, Mohamed Iguerb, the 22nd edition of Sila also witnessed the holding of about fifty meetings and round tables, in addition to the intense activity of publishers and authors who returned to meet the audience who attended this literary event with “more than 1.3 million visitors.”
On the last day of Sila, the National Syndicate of Book Publishers, with the participation of members of the Arab Publishers Union, gifted a “library of more than 5,000 books to the President of the Republic, Mr. Abdelmadjid Tebboune, which was received on his behalf by the Minister of Culture and Arts, in gratitude for his “support and encouragement to the participants.”
The Minister of Culture and Arts, Soraya Mouloudji, who attended the salon on this last day, congratulated the Sila governorate for the success of this edition.
The edition also knew the organization of many meetings related to history and included the sixtieth anniversary of the victory ceremony coinciding with March 19 of each year, in addition to round tables on literature, the pandemic and the book industry.
Cultural bodies and institutions participated in this salon with various meeting programs such as the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Endowments, the Supreme Council of the Arabic Language, the Amazigh High Prefecture, the National Library, as well as the Research Center in Social and Cultural Anthropology.
