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Taipei (dpa) - The 2006 Taipei International Book Exhibition (TIBE), the largest book fair in Asia, opened on Tuesday featuring European literature.
Premier Su Tseng-chang opened the book fair Tuesday morning and welcomed foreign guests attending the six-day event at the Taipei World Trade Centre.
President Chen Shui-bian toured the book fair in the afternoon.
A total of 885 publishers from 42 countries have set up 1,910 booths at the Taipei book fair, compared with 877 publishers from 40 countries and 2,100 stalls last year.
The decline in the number of booths is because some publishers are putting up joint booths this year, the TIBE Foundation said.
Te 14th TIBE features four European countries - France, Germany, Greece and Poland.
"The reason we choose these four nations is that the European Union has become the largest economy in the world and cultural diversity of Europe," the TIBE Foundation said in a news release.
More than 20 foreign writers, publishers and cartoonists will give speeches at seminars and panel discussions or sign books during the February 7-12 event.
The expo has set up a European Film Hall to show European films and documentaries. Some 300,000 Taiwanese are expected to visit the book fair.
Since it was launched in 1992, TIBE has grown into the largest book fair in Asia due to Taiwan's flourishing publishing industry, inexpensive rent and government funding for the event.
However, organizers fear that the Beijing International Book Fair may eventually become Asia's largest book fair.
Copyright 2006 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
