More than 2,000 publishing houses from over 25 countries are participating in the 2025 edition of the fair, organized by the Saudi Literature, Publishing and Translation Commission. The business zone, revived with expanded scale, aims to facilitate rights exchanges, strategic partnerships, and new market entries.
Abdullatif bin Abdulaziz Alwasel, CEO of the commission, emphasises that the zone forms a core component of the Kingdom’s strategy to integrate culture and economy under Vision 2030. He argues that the space “offers publishers more opportunities to meet, negotiate and share ideas,” strengthening Saudi’s role in the regional publishing ecosystem even as local authors gain greater exposure.
Uzbekistan, this year’s guest of honour, reinforces that goal. Its pavilion showcases translated works, manuscripts, cultural performances, and dialogues with Saudi institutions. The close collaboration between Uzbek and Saudi cultural bodies at the fair signals growing bilateral literary exchange, underpinned by translation and rights trading as bridges between languages and markets.
Participants from outside the Gulf are treating the business hub as a high-value platform. International literary agents report that meetings held within the zone have already yielded memoranda of understanding for distribution in MENA territories. Some smaller publishers—particularly from the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia—have noted that the zone allows them to bypass EU- or U. S.-centric circuits and connect directly with Gulf-based funding and translation supports.
Workshops within the zone examine topics critical to market expansion: intellectual property rights in Arab jurisdictions, digital publishing models suited to Arabic script, and royalty frameworks across cross-border contracts. A session on “Arabic-English Co-Publishing” drew capacity attendance, reflecting growing interest in bilingual editions.
The Saudi Commission has made deliberate efforts to increase domestic publisher complements within the zone. The “Saudi Authors’ Corner” offers self-published and emerging local writers access to agents and translators, ensuring that the business zone is not solely international but also homegrown.
Critics point out that though the zone projects openness, it operates under existing regulatory constraints. The Saudi market remains tightly regulated: all books must receive approval from the relevant censorship bodies before being displayed or sold. Some foreign authors and agents who spoke informally at the fair said that rapid removal of titles flagged by authorities has dampened some transaction momentum.
Still, the business zone represents a structural shift in how Riyadh markets itself culturally. Previously, the fair was viewed largely as a public festival; this year, it is pushing to become a serious trade show. Comparisons are being drawn to the Cairo International Book Fair or the Frankfurt Book Fair model, albeit adapted to Gulf dynamics.
Observers note that embedding economic logic into the fair aligns with Saudi Arabia’s broader push to turn cultural assets into export-oriented sectors. The fair’s daily hours extended to midnight reflect demand from international participants coordinating across time zones.
For Saudi authors and publishers, the zone’s significance is dual: it offers a gateway to new revenue streams abroad, but it also signals that competition will intensify. Local firms plan to leverage the zone to propose rights trading with Asia, Africa and Latin America. Some startups are laying plans to launch Arabic translation services from Riyadh itself.
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Saudi Arabia