Tehran, May 3 (IANS): The 30th Tehran International Book Fair opened here with Italy as a special guest of this year's event.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella in a message on Tuesday said he felt honoured that his country was the special guest of the cultural event, Xinhua news agency reported.

According to him, this will be a turning point in the history of cultural cooperation between the two countries.

Iran's parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said "this cultural event shows Iranians' interest in learning, as paying due attention to wisdom is highly recommended in Islamic thought".

The Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, Reza Salehi Amiri, said his ministry was planning to entrust the task of organising the book fair to the publishers in the future.

"To achieve such goals, we should know how our libraries, publications and the technology are run and we intend for the non-governmental organisations active in producing, distributing and selling books," he said.

"The increasing number of book publications indicates the growing change in Iran's publication industry. The fair needs to offer new innovations and pave the way for more Iranian publishers to participate in the international arena," he added.

The book fair will be held from May 3 to 13 in the southern district of Tehran. The theme of this year's event is "Read one more book".

Publishers from 32 countries will attend the event.