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‫ لجنة الشرق األوسط‬IFRRO
MEC 1/11-12, Annex 2
MEMORANDUM
To
IFRRO Middle East Committee
From Olav Stokkmo, IFRRO
Re
Middle East
Date
29 September 2011
GENERAL
Data on copyright industries and the knowledge based economies in the Middle East are scarce: There is a
WIPO sponsored study published in 2003 with data mainly from the late 1990ies and early 2000 (ISBN
92-805-1316-1 on “Performance of copyright industries in selected Arab countries: Egypt, Jordan,
Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia”; a WIPO sponsored study “The Economic contribution of copyright
based industries in Lebanon” from 2007; and Dr. Rüder Wischenbart’ study for IPA on the “Global
Publishing Markets” which contains data on total book production in four Arab countries (Egypt, Jordan,
Lebanon and Syria).
No data is available, for instance, for UAE and Saudi Arabia. Nonetheless, it may be assumed that one
can tentatively and with caution draw some conclusions on the situation in those two and other Arab
countries on the basis of data from the countries where studies have been conducted.
Copying of nationally published material generally prevails in primary and secondary education
All types of institutions make use of reprographic and similar reproduction of printed and published
material. The main user is education, followed by public administration and certain types of private
companies – the copyright and knowledge based industries such as the pharmaceutical companies, IT
companies, etc.
In general and based on studies carried out by IFRRO members, the use of reprographic and similar
copies may be split in two:
 In primary and secondary education, public administration and national companies nationally
produced and published material prevails
 The proportion of copies of foreign material is higher in the territory sector and in multinational
companies
This may very well be true also for Middle East countries. The studies referred to above document that
textbooks for schools dominate the book and journal publishing in the Arab countries that have been
surveyed. If this is the case the local publishing industries and economies would stand to benefit from the
establishment of RROs with an early licensing of primary and secondary education.
SURVEY DATA
Data is available for Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia and Syria only.
Contribution to Economy
The most recent study, and the only one using the WIPO methodology, is the one carried out in Lebanon
in 2007. It shows:
Total copyright based industries
Core copyright industries
Print media (Press and literature)
GDP
4.75%
2.53%
0.75%
Contribution to
Employment
4.48%
2.11%
0.83%
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The earlier studies from late 1990ies and early 2000 show:
Egypt
Jordan Lebanon
Morocco
Tunisia
GDP
Core copyright industries
Book publishing
0.001%
0.002%
0.7%
0.2%
0.5%
0.3%
0.6%
0.4%
Employment
Core copyright industries
Book publishing
NA
NA
<0.5% 1.22%
0.1
0.79%
NA
NA
NA
NA
1.6%
0.8%
It should be stressed that these studies were carried out before WIPO had developed the methodology.
Book publishing
Total number of titles produced in 2009:
Titles per million inhabitant
Egypt
4,230
51
Jordan
2,370
395
Lebanon
3,840
914
Syria
1,050
50
Market 2003 study; Text book publishing for schools prevails.
Comments made in the reports from the studies:
Egypt:
“Scientific products constituted around 26% of the total number of publications in
1996, whereas school and children’s books had a share of 29%.”1
Jordan:
“Target consumers were mainly moderate-income groups, including students.”2
“…concentration on publishing for schools and colleges, where the Jordanian
curriculum would prevail,”3
Lebanon:
“They publish mainly in Arabic, their profits being mainly generated by school
textbooks and books of general interest”4
“Feedback from our interviews suggests that dictionaries and textbooks represent
more than 50% of the output of the three largest publishing houses.”5
Morocco:
“Around 40% of the total output relates to school textbooks”6
Tunisia:
“Most of this household spending has been on textbooks, with other types of book
accounting for only 20%.”7
School textbooks in % of total production
Egypt
66%
Jordan
Main
Lebanon
~ 50%
Morocco
~ 40%
Tunisia
80%
Schools in the Region
Top Tier International Schools reports 1,022 Schools, 870,000 students in the Middle East
1
ISBN 92-805-1316-1, page 40
ISBN 92-805-1316-1, page 90
3
ISBN 92-805-1316-1, page 91
4
ISBN 92-805-1316-1, page 118
5
ISBN 92-805-1316-1, page 129
6
ISBN 92-805-1316-1, page 181
7
ISBN 92-805-1316-1, page 211
2
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Export/Import
Jordan8
 Export of books represents 0.6% of GDP, whereas Import of books represents 0.2% of GDP
Lebanon9
 “Imported books do not compete with local publications in Arabic, as the products and
markets are completely different.” (Reading language in Lebanon was 82.5% Arabic in 2000
according to page 169 of the WIPO sponsored 2003 Study.)
 Import/Export balance was $ - 421,000 in 2000 and – 4.4 mill in 2001.
Tunisia10
 “They feel that they are challenged by internal competition rather than by imports, probably
because they do not regard the latter to be valid substitutes for local publications”
Recommended government initiatives in the study
Egypt11:
 “Availability of funding seems to be an important constraint…Establishing a mechanism for
securing the required funding for the BPI and other cultural industries will definitely help
them to flourish”
Jordan:12
 “…buttress the judiciary in the efforts made to strengthen IPRs”
 “The role of civil society and the media is crucial in developing stronger cultural industries”
Lebanon13
 “Publishers, printing houses and distributors suffer from the difficulty of securing finance.”
 “The role of the government is rather to enforce the existing laws in order to ensure a healthy
environment for the industry and promote export. Effective protection of the IPR laws is
definitely a step to be taken…”
Morocco14
 “Publishers see the following aspects of public policy as still being unsatisfactory:
…copyright enforcement”
IFRRO comment: These are all issues addressed by RROs. Also, licensing of and payment for
reprographic reproduction provides funding for the publishing industry to help it flourish.
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END -
ISBN 92-805-1316-1, page 87
ISBN 92-805-1316-1, page 132
10
ISBN 92-805-1316-1, page 215
11
ISBN 92-805-1316-1, page 43
12
ISBN 92-805-1316-1, page 112
13
ISBN 92-805-1316-1, pages, 131 and136
14
ISBN 92-805-1316-1, page 186
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