The 10-day fair is being held as part of the Kingdom’s initiative to stimulate an intellectual debate on social and cultural issues.
Visitors, including both Saudi families and expatriates, were still arriving in large numbers at the book fair. According to the organizer, the number is expected to double before it concludes on Thursday.
Aside from various local and international publishers participants in this year’s fair, many Saudi government agencies and ministries had their stands in the exhibition such as the Capital Market Authority, Anti-Corruption Commission and the main organizer the Ministry of Culture and Information.
Commenting on the fair this year following his visit on the second day of the event, British Arabist Julian Johansen, who works as a legal adviser and is a partner at international law firm Allen & Overy that works in association with Abdulaziz Al-Gasim Law Firm in Riyadh, said the number of publishers at the book fair was very impressive.
He pointed out the participation of European countries such as Sweden, the United Kingdom and France has given the Saudi people a chance to find out more about Europe.
“I thought this was a very good opportunity for overseas publishers to showcase their publications and would say it is very encouraging,” he said. The United States, Germany, Austria, India, Japan and Turkey also participated in this year’s fair.
This year's program highlighted social and intellectual issues such as the culture of human rights, civil society and the future of Arab discourse on Islamic understanding and scholarship. There were also discussions on social networking and satellite channels for children, the future of print publishing and languages on the verge of extinction.
In his presentation on “Education-Research-Innovation, a Strategic Triangle for Development” Joseph Nordgren of Uppsala University in Sweden said in the modern globally competitive and knowledge-based economy, foundation skills have become increasingly important. Having a skilled workforce is necessary to ensure productivity and sustainable growth.
He said: “A skills strategy needs to address adaption to changing demand by quality, efficiency and flexibility in provision of learning. At universities one has sometimes too much separated the three major tasks — education, research and interaction with society.
The knowledge triangle concept describes research, education and innovation as connected to each other in a continuous, integrated process that promotes efficient utilization of the higher education provision for innovation and the path toward a knowledge-based society. The talk discussed some aspects of research and education at university level, such as quality development, innovation systems, internationalization and impact of prestigious awards.
Al-Hujailan said this year's expo has taken advantage of the views expressed by participants through questionnaires that were distributed during the forum last year.
There was also a section for books on fiction and translation as well as a poetry session and discussions on poetry, short stories and emerging trends in Arabic literature.
