growing knowledge gap in the arab world

Filed in archive Global Economy , Politics , Technology on October 22, 2003

The UNDP recently published one of the best regional briefings I came across lately. "The Arab Human Development" report 2003 dissects the transition of Arab countries into a knowledge economy. It does not only research into the current situation and challenges, it also delivers a clear strategic vision. The main findings have been first reported by Dr. Rima Khalaf Hunaidi (Director Regional Bureau for Arab States) - not exactly the usual suspect of promoting 'western ideology'.

The report hightlights the poor performance of most Arab nation's transition into globalized knowledge markets.

"Data in the Report tell a story of stagnation in certain areas of knowledge production, especially in the field of scientific research. In addition to thin production, scientific research in Arab countries is held back by weak basic research and the almost total absence of advanced research in fields such as information technology and molecular biology. It also suffers from miserly R&D expenditure (currently state spending on R&D does not exceed 0.2 percent of GNP, most of which pays only for salaries. The number of scientists and engineers working in R&D in Arab countries is not more than 371 per million citizens (global 979)."

"One of the main features of the production pattern prevailing in Arab countries, which influences knowledge acquisition, is a high dependence on the depletion of raw materials, chiefly oil, and reliance on external rents."

"The vast amount of Arab capital invested in industrialized countries and, therefore, denied to the Arab World, is strong evidence that, in human development terms, it is not the possession of money and wealth that matters but how productively such wealth is invested."

Some figures illustrate the shortcomings:

• Arab student numbers there dropped by an average of 30 per cent between 1999 and last year, she noted.


• Arab states' gross domestic product at the end of the 20th century was USD$604 billion, little more than that of Spain.


• No more than 10,000 books were translated into Arabic over the entire millennium, equivalent to the number translated every year into Spanish.


• Religious books account for 17 per cent of all books published in Arab countries. The world average is 5 per cent.


• Only 1.6 per cent of the Arab population has Internet access. There are just 18 computers per 1,000 people compared with the global average of 78.3.


• Arab patent applications registered in the US in the past 20 years are 5 per cent of the total from Israel.