Taipei, Feb. 18 (CNA) The annual Taipei International Book Exhibition (TIBE) drew 580,000 visits during its six-day run that ended Sunday, up 10 percent from the previous year, according to the event's organizer, the Taipei Book Fair Foundation.

On Saturday alone, 160,000 people swarmed into the Taipei World Trade Center, the most in a single day in recent years, said foundation Chairman Chao Cheng-ming (趙政岷), who saw Saturday's attendance as just one of the positive results of the 2019 book show.

Others included a 7 percent growth in the number of publishers participating in the fair, a 13 percent rise in the number of participating foreign publishers, and a 27 percent rise in the number of meetings held to discuss copyright authorization.

In addition, there were 1,184 workshops in which book authors met and had conversations with their fans, but the biggest achievement may have been "bringing young people to the book exhibition," Chao said.

He described these many results as "unusual achievements" in an era when the publishing industry is struggling.

A total of 735 publishers from 52 countries participated in the Taipei fair, with Germany the featured country this year, according to the organizer.

Chen Teng-chin (陳登欽), secretary-general of the Ministry of Culture (MOC), thanked Germany for its participation, which he said enabled Taiwanese to learn of Germans' fondness for reading and the importance they put on the freedom of the press.

The MOC sponsors the TIBE, the largest book fair in the country.

(By Chen Cheng-wei and Elizabeth Hsu)
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