KUALA LUMPUR: The Kuala Lumpur International Book Fair (PBAKL) will be held physically starting tomorrow until June 12, after two years of being conducted online and is expected to attract between 700,000 and a million visitors.
PBAKL 2022 Organising Committee chairman Mohd Khair Ngadiron said the fair will be held at the Kuala Lumpur World Trade Centre featuring over 700 booths involving nearly 200 local and international publishers including from Indonesia, Singapore and Turkey.
"We are retaining the PBAKL tradition of celebrating the visitors without charging any entrance fee. It also runs concurrently with the school holidays and parents may take this golden opportunity to bring their family members here," he told Bernama.
The 39th PBAKL is hosted by the National Book Council of Malaysia (MBKM) under the Ministry of Education with the cooperation of the country's book industry associations.
Mohd Khair, who is also MBKM director urged visitors to comply with standard operating procedures (SOP) prescribed to contain the COVID-19 outbreak, such as presenting their MySejahtera status and wearing face masks.
According to him, PBAKL 2022 is also held online starting yesterday until June 15 in collaboration with the e-commerce company, Shopee.
He said PBAKL is crucial in the effort to inculcate the reading culture by providing an exclusive experience to the visitors, allowing them to interact directly with booksellers and book writers.
"Writers can also interact with book enthusiasts for promotional purposes and build good relations with them," he added.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob is expected to officiate PBAKL 2022 on Saturday (June 4) at 8.30pm.--BERNAMA