HRH Prince Moulay Rachid toured, on this occasion, the fair and visited several stands, including that of the Economic Community of Central African States, SIEL's guest of honor for this year.

   His Royal Highness also visited other stands: the Ministry of Culture, Librairie des écoles, Algerian publishers, the French Institute, Latin America, the Cervantes Institute, Arrabita Al Mohammadia des Oulemas, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Dar America, the Library of Alexandria, the Chinese Books, the Southern Agency and the publishing house "La croisée des chemins".

   Upon his arrival at the Casablanca International Fair, which houses SIEL, HRH Prince Moulay Rachid reviewed a detachment of the Auxiliary Forces who made the honors before being greeted notably by Hafid Elalamy, Minister of Industry , Trade, Investment and Digital Economy, Acting Deputy Minister for Foreign Trade, Mohamed Amine Sbihi, Minister of Culture, as well as members of the ECCAS, which boasts 10 countries (Gabon, Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Democratic Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe and Chad).

   The 23rd SIEL, organized by the Ministry of Culture in collaboration with the Office of Fairs & Exhibitions in Casablanca (OFEC), is attended by 54 countries, as well as 11 African ministers of Culture and 40 publishers and writers.

   The organizers of SIEL, which stretches over 20,000 m2, expect to welcome about 350,000 visitors who will discover 100,000 titles from 702 publishers.

   Following the previous edition, SIEL will host the 2nd edition of the "copyright assignment platform", which is a forum for exchange on copyright and translation open to book and publishing professionals in order to promote books internationally.

   Besides activities dedicated to African countries, the 2017 SIEL will organize several thematic conferences, poetic evenings, signatures of books and workshops for children as well as the award of the Ibn Batouta Prize for travel literature.