THE Kuala Lumpur International Book Fair (KLIBF) 2020 will be held at Putra World Trade Centre, said the organiser, quashing talk of a shift in venue to Serdang.

National Book Council of Malaysia director Mohd Khair Ngadiron told The Malaysian Insight that a final decision has been made for the event to be held at PWTC in Kuala Lumpur from March 27 to April 5 next year.

There were rumours that KLIBF 2020 would be held at Tapak Ekspo Pertanian Serdang Malaysia (Maeps), some 30km from the capital, leading to disappointment among publishers and book lovers.

“We will hold the event at PWTC. When talk of the Serdang venue cropped up, we had not yet decided on anything. Serdang was just a proposed venue,” said Khair.

“We decided at our meeting yesterday that we will remain at PWTC for next year’s event.”

There had been complaints since last month after a poster for the event, listing Serdang as the venue, made the rounds online. The poster carried KLIBF’s official logo and website address.

The decision to hold the event at PWTC was received warmly by many.

Publisher Azlan Husin said Kuala Lumpur is the ideal location as it has been declared “Book City” for 2020.

“As such, the event should be held in KL, befitting its status as ‘Book City’. It does not matter where in KL they hold the event, but PWTC is a good venue.

“Although parking is an issue, there is good public transport access to PWTC. It also has other facilities, like eateries, nearby.”

Bibliophiles took to Twitter to laud the decision.

“A win for the people,” said @sederhanaindah.

“Rejoice, Kuala Lumpur folk. The Kuala Lumpur International Book Fair is back at PWTC,” said @JarrNadjmuddean.

“Can’t wait to raid the event next year,” added @aaaliseya.

The event was held at Maeps in 2016, but did not get positive feedback from visitors and exhibitors, who complained about the location and lack of public transport to the venue.

PWTC has been the home of KLIBF since the early 1990s. Prior to that, the event was held at Changkat Pavillion.

Khair said a 20% discount will be given to exhibitors, to boost their participation.

“We understand that we need to provide incentives, and we will try to give them more space as well.

“With this, we hope to make the industry more competitive.” – December 18, 2019.