Malaysia exceeds sales target at Frankfurt Book Fair

FRANKFURT: The Frankfurt Book Fair (FBF) 2017, the world's largest book and publication industry event, ended on Sunday with Malaysia recording a sales contract of over RM9 million.
Head of the Malaysian delegation to FBF, Abd Wahab Ibrahim said generally this year Malaysia's participation was very encouraging, especially from the publishing industry.
"We have exceeded our goal. We targeted a sales contract of RM8 million but we achieved over RM9 million," he told reporters on the last day of the book fair which saw a gathering of 300,000 book publishers from around the world. The five-day fair opened on Oct 11.
Abdul Wahab, who is also National Book Council of Malaysia (MBKM) director, said the organisation played its role in looking for business opportunities through business match-making with international publishers, including from Turkey, Vietnam and Taiwan.
He was also impressed with the level of professionalism shown by the Malaysian delegation who included 31 exhibitors from government and private agencies, government-linked companies and the Malaysian Book Publishers Association.

"It shows the seriousness of the book industry players in upholding the industry not only at national level but also internationally," he said.
He added that Malaysia was also invited by representatives of London Book Fair, the Seoul International Book Fair, and the Turkey International Book Fair to participate in their countries' book festivals next year.
Meanwhile, Perbadanan Kota Buku senior manager Hasri Hasan said the sales value recorded by Malaysia has opened more opportunities for local book industry players.
Various activities were held at the Malaysian Pavilion throughout FBF 2017 at the Frankfurt Trade Centre, among them the launch of Storymaker League's 1st Asian Story-Writing Challenge 2017, launch of language month and a novel titled The Blood Witch by a Malaysian author Cinthia Koeksal.
In line with the theme Faces of Malaysia this year, a display on the culture of the Mah Meri Orang Asli tribe was brought specially from Carey Island, Banting, to Frankfurt as an attraction at the Malaysian Pavilion. — Bernama