Download Cultural Industries in Arab Countries

Economic Performance of
Arabic Translation Industry in
Arab Countries
Dr. Najib Harabi
Professor of Economics at the University
of Applied Sciences, Northwestern
Switzerland
Contents
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Introduction
Objectives of the Study
Methodology of the Study
Major Results
Recommendations
Introduction
• Motivation of the study: World Bank
Project
• Importance of Translation for Development
in Arab Countries: Toward a knowledgebased Economy and Society
Objectives
• Describe the economic performance of TI in
5 Arab Countries
• Understand major factors affecting
economic performance of TI
• Recommendations for policy makers
Arabic Translation Activities
• Initiating of translating idea, including
funding
• Act of translating
• Production of translated items (book,
document etc.)
• Distribution of translated items
• Retail (sale)
Methodology
• First objective: Using existing data for estimating
3 indicators:
• GVA of TI as % of GDP
• Employment in TI as % of total employment
• Share of foreign trade in TI as % of total foreign
trade
Methodology II
• Second Objective: Questionnaire-based
survey
• 190 Interviews in 5 Arab Countries
• Survey Year: 2005
Methodological and Data
Problems
• Common Definition of TI in all 5 countries
• Boundaries of TI
• Comparisons among countries and over
time
• Availability of data in Arab Countries
Overall Results
• Economic contribution of TI to national
income, job creation and foreign trade in the
five countries is very small, if not
negligible!!
• In qualitative terms, TI is very important to
a knowledge-based economy and to
international knowledge transfer into Arab
economy and society.
Overall Results (2)
• TI is not only very small, its overall
economic performance is also very poor in
all Arab countries under consideration,
except in Lebanon.
• So, what are the reasons for this poor
performance?
Supply Conditions
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Lack of qualified translators
Ambiguous status of translators
Lack of capital investments
Lack of sufficient and sustainable financing
Demand Conditions
• Small size and fragmented demand for
translated books
• Characteristics of demand unknown: No
systematic readership surveys
• No common Arab market
Related and supporting industries
• Role of upstream industries (printing, paper,
ICT etc.): negative in Egypt and SaudiArabia
• Role of downstream industries (distribution,
retail, advertising etc.): positive in Lebanon,
Syria and Saudi-Arabia; negative in Egypt.
Corporate Strategy, market structure,
and Rivalry
• Public and private translation strategies:
both not optimal
• Public strategies driven by political
priorities
• Private strategies: intuitive, risk-averse,
conservative, reflecting bottlenecks of the
TI
Recommendations
• TI offers a great POTENTIAL
• How to mobilize it?
• Improve the quality and availability of the
generalized and special inputs.
(1) Policies affecting production
factor conditions
• Improve the documentation of Arab translation
needs
• Design and implement translation support
programs on a sustainable basis
• Invest in human resources by building a strong
training system for translators and related jobs
 Support science and technology, for instance in the
area of electronic publishing, e-commerce,
machine translation software development etc,
Cont.
 Create some sort of accreditation bodies for
translators to control for good quality
(2) Policies affecting demand
conditions
• Support readership surveys
• Stimulate early demand;
• Act as a sophisticated buyer in purchasing
(ask for high quality of translated books);
• Promote translation quality assessment
programs
(3) Policies affecting related and
supporting industries
• Facilitate cluster development along the lines of
the value chain of the book industry;
 Promote training programs among professionals of
TI in marketing and distribution;
• Improve distribution outlets;
• Promote the role of non-governmental
professional publishing and translation
associations.
(4) Policies affecting strategy,
structure and rivalry:
• Promote local competition by deregulating
the structure of industry and strictly
enforcing antitrust policy and IPRs;
• Expand interregional (Arab) and
international trade and investment by
opening book markets, promoting exports
and attracting appropriate foreign
investment in those markets.
End!
• Thanks for your attention!