The inauguration by His Royal Highness of this fair shows HM King Mohammed VI’s solicitude for the cultural sector and his strong determination to promote various cultural events to build an open, prosperous, civilized and knowledge-based society.

HRH Crown Prince Moulay El Hassan visited, on this occasion, several stands, including that of Egypt, SIEL's guest of honour for this year.

His Royal Highness also visited the stands of the Ministry of Culture and Communication, Sharjah Book Authority, Algerian editors, the French Institute, the Cervantes Institute, Dar America, South America, SOCHEPRESS, and the publishing houses “Dar Takafa”, "Dar Errachad El Haditha", "Groupe La Librairie des écoles" and "La croisée des chemins".

HRH Crown Prince Moulay El Hassan also visited the stands of the ministry of State for human rights, the National Human Rights Council (CNDH), the Council of the Moroccan community abroad (CCME), the Palestinian ministry of culture and of the Kuwaiti National Council for Culture, Arts and  Letters.

The 24th SIEL, organized by the Ministry of Culture in collaboration with the Moroccan Investment Development Agency (AMDI) and the Office of Fairs, welcomes 709 exhibitors from Morocco, Arab countries, Africa, Europe and America.

The 2018 edition includes several thematic conferences, poetic evenings and signatures of books, as well as the awarding of Ibn Batouta Prize for travel literature. 

Upon his arrival at the Casablanca International book Fair, HRH Crown Prince Moulay El Hassan reviewed a detachment of the Royal Guard before being greeted by minister of Culture and Communication, Mohamed El Aaraj, Egyptian Minister of Culture, Inas Abdedayem, Egypt’s ambassador to Morocco, Ashraf Ibrahim Ahmed Ibrahim, Wali of Casablanca-Settat Region, Governor of Casablanca Prefecture, Abdelkebir Zahoud, as well as by several personalities.