BEIJING - Against the backdrop of a screen showing white clouds wandering across a crystal blue sky, poets chanted words that resonated with the Dutch music.

A Dutch flavor will spice up the annual Beijing International Book Fair, the fourth largest of its kind in the world, which officially opened on Wednesday in Beijing at the new China International Exhibition Center in Shunyi district.

The five-day event will welcome more than 2,000 publishing organizations from 60 countries and regions to showcase more than 200,000 new books, periodicals, electronic publications and audio-video products.

With the principle of "introducing excellent books from around the world into China and taking Chinese books to the world", the fair, now in its 18th edition, has grown into a major platform for book and copyright trade, cultural events, consultation services and professional networking, since its inception in 1986.

According to Liu Binjie, director of the General Administration of Press and Publication, 320,000 books and 3.2 billion periodicals were published in 2010, with the total output amounting to 1.3 trillion yuan ($203.7 billion), proof of China's fast-growing publishing industry.

This year the book fair features the Netherlands as the guest of honor, focusing on the theme Open Landscape, Open Book. Halbe Zijlstra, Dutch state secretary for education, culture and science, said the Netherlands was honored to take advantage of the book fair to promote Dutch culture, especially literature.

Princess Laurentien van Oranje will deliver a speech on sustainable development, and launch a Chinese version of her own creation, Mr Finney, a successful series of illustrated stories for children.

"I believe that reading and writing will never die in an increasingly digitalized era," the princess said in a speech at the Beijing International Publishing Forum on Tuesday, one of the important forums that precede the book fair each year.

"It's still important to foster the reading habit in young people while also preparing for the challenges brought along by e-publishing," she said.

A Dutch delegation of 150 members, including 25 publishers and 25 writers, will stage a series of cultural exhibitions and activities.

Dutch writers Kader Abdolah, Herman Koch, Margriet de Moor, J. Bernlef, and Adriaan van Dis will hold conversations with Mao Dun Literature Prize winner A Lai, avant-garde writers Zhu Wen and Han Dong, urban fiction writer Xu Zechen and cyber writer Murong Xuecun.

Highlights of this year's fair include a 10,000-square-meter section for displaying new technologies and digital publishing products and the fifth awards ceremony for foreign writers, translators and publishers who have made outstanding contributions to the dissemination of Chinese culture and books overseas.

Former British prime minister Tony Blair attended the book fair earlier this week to launch the Chinese version of his memoir, A Journey.

US futurists John and Doris Naisbitt, who will launch The Chengdu Mode, a book to explore the urbanization and integration of Chinese cities with Chengdu as the perfect example, were honored on Tuesday night with the Special Book Award of China, along with four translators and publishers.

Henk Proper, head of the Dutch Literature Foundation, the organization behind the country's various events, said he and his team were pleased to be able to promote book and reading exchanges in China at the fair.

Recalling the experience of seeing many Chinese people reading in bookstores, Proper said he and other publishers have plenty of business opportunities in China.