Bringing in another event to the already-busy city diary, the Indonesian Publishers Association (Ikapi) Jakarta branch, launched Saturday the 2009 Jakarta Book Fair in Senayan, Central Jakarta.

Held at Istora Senayan indoor stadium until next Sunday, the event has successfully gathered 300 book publishers, offering visitors an opportunity to surf a collection of more than a million books.

They also have an open opportunity to bring home copies of all the books on their wish lists since all publishers are offering up to 70 percent discount.

Afrizal Sinaro, head of Ikapi Jakarta, said that aside from promoting the reading habits to the public, the event was aimed at giving low-income consmers an opportunity to buy high-quality books at affordable prices.

"Although the annual book consumption in Jakarta is relatively high, it can't be an actual indicator of *most* people's reading habits since book purchases are dominated by customers from the middle and upper-middle class," he said, adding that he was targeting the nine-day event to attract more than 350,000 visitors.

Governor Fauzi Bowo, who attended the opening ceremony, said that he fully supported the event as he believed that promoting reading habits, especially for children and students, was an effective way to improve the quality of human resources.

"It is very important for us to encourage our children to adopt reading as part of their lifestyle."

"But unfortunately, I believe that many of us are more familiar with cell phones rather than reading, or even, buying books," he said, provoking laughter from the audience.

According to data from Ikapi, Indonesia currently publishes, on average, 36 million books every year. Of this number, 40 percent are distributed in Greater Jakarta, which includes Jakarta, Bogor, Tangerang, Depok and Bekasi.

Umam, a visitor from Ciputat, Tangerang, said he enjoyed the book fair, saying that he had planned to visit the event since last week.

"My daughter will enter junior high school next month. We hope we can get some text books cheaper here," said Umam.

Aside from displaying books, the event is also scheduling dozens of additional programs, including book launchings, music shows and talk shows.

Former president B.J. Habibie, who temporarily resides in Germany, is scheduled to be one of the speakers in a Saturday talk show. (hwa)

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