Make A Quick Decision On Book Fair, Organisers Urged

A concern group has urged the organisers of this year’s book fair to come to a decision as soon as possible on whether or not the week-long event will go ahead on Wednesday.

Jimmy Pang, a spokesperson for the 2020 Hong Kong Book Fair Concern Group, made the comments after the organisers, The Hong Kong Trade Development Council, said that they understood the concerns of the public and exhibitors, and would announce arrangements for the book fair soon.

The group said on Sunday that over 150 participants had raised concerns about the event.

Speaking on an RTHK radio programme on Monday, Pang said that a number of exhibitors are shipping their books into the exhibition centre today, and said he hoped the TDC will decide as soon as possible whether or not to cancel or postpone the event amid a spike in Covid-19 cases in the past week.

He said that the book fair is an important source of revenue for the SAR’s booksellers – often accounting for about 40 to 50 percent ot their annual revenue – but that the majority of the 200 exhibitors have said they would rather have the event postponed as they don’t want to be the source of another community outbreak.

Pang said he expected the organiser will likely postpone the event instead of cancelling it altogether, saying that a number of small and medium-sized book publishers would be unable to shoulder the loss if it was called off.

He said that the organisers postpone the event to end of the year to coincide with the Christmas or New Year holidays.