PM: It Is Honor for Georgia to Be Guest of Honor at the Frankfurt Book Fair
By Tea Mariamidze
Thursday, October 11
The Prime Minister of Georgia, Mamuka Bakhtadze stated it is very important for Georgia to participate in the Frankfurt Book Fair with a history of 500 years as a Guest of Honor.
The PM delivered a speech after the launch of the Frankfurt Book Fair together with Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Jurgen Boos, Director of the Frankfurt Book Fair on October 9.
“Participation in this prestigious and wide-scale event gives us a unique opportunity to showcase our oldest and rich Georgian culture and assure everyone in the civilization unity that relates Georgians with Europeans,” he said.
Bakhtadze talked about the rich and diverse Georgian culture, noting that it was greatly influenced by every epoch of the European civilization, which ultimately defined its European identity.
“The more diverse Georgia is the richer and more interesting it is and nowadays stands ready to embrace any and all progressiveness and novelty. Therefore, current Georgia is a modern country with its history and authentic culture,” he added.
The PM also opened Georgian pavilion at the Frankfurt Book Fair, which showcases 33 letters of the Georgian alphabet, introducing various sides of the country’s literature, art and culture.
On the initiative of the Prime Minister of Georgia Mamuka Bakhtadze, a unique handmade edition of the famous Georgian poem The Knight in the Panther’s Skin by Shota Rustaveli is also on show in the Georgian Pavilion.
The Prime Minister of Georgia presented to the High Representative of the European Union, Federica Mogherini, a collection silver coin with a denomination of 5 GEL branded as The Georgian Book, which has been minted by the National Bank of Georgia (NBG) to mark the participation of the country in the Frankfurt Book Fair as the 2018 Guest of Honor.
In addition, Bakhtadze and high-ranking officials also viewed the Magnum photo exhibition and attended a concert of Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili, who performed for the guests of the Georgian Pavilion.
At the special reception, held later that day, the PM addressed the guests, underlining Georgia’s contribution to the European culture.
“Today is a very important and special day for every Georgian as we have this unique opportunity to show you the culture that we have preserved in Georgia and also the contribution, which we made in our common European civilization. This is very important for us,” he stated.
The Frankfurter Buchmesse (Book Fair) is the world's largest trade fair for books, based both on the number of publishing companies represented, and the number of visitors. It is considered to be the most important book fair in the world for international deals and trading. The five-day annual event in mid-October is held at the Frankfurt Trade Fairgrounds in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The first three days are restricted exclusively to professional visitors. The general public attends the fair on the weekend.
Several thousand exhibitors representing book publishing, multimedia and technology companies, as well as content providers from all over the world gather in order to negotiate international publishing rights and license fees.
The fair is organized by Frankfurter Buchmesse GmbH, a subsidiary of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association. More than 7,300 exhibitors from over 100 countries and more than 286,000 visitors took part in the year 2017
This year the Book Fair takes place on October 10-14.
