Digital Arabia - a dream takes on substance
By Maria Livanos Cattaui
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| The Crown Prince announces Dubai's free trade zone for Internet business in 1999 - a landmark event for the Arab World |
Paris, 28 April 2001 - Information technology is changing the world, or large parts of it. The defeat of distance, unlimited access to information, the ability to do business everywhere over the universal medium of the Internet - these are glittering prizes affecting the lives of millions.
That at least is how it looks to people who happen to live in regions where access to telecommunications networks is cheap and easy and whose language is written in Latin script. They get an added bonus if English is their country's main language, or a widely spoken second language.
Things are different on the other side of the digital divide. So far, that has included the Arab world, where Internet penetration remains generally low, although there are some immensely encouraging exceptions.
Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates have shown themselves to be among the most receptive to the new technology's potential and have consequently made the greatest progress. The UAE, home of the Dubai Internet City, is well ahead of the game with almost 17% of the population using the Internet.
Interviewed for a recent Newsweek cover story headed "Digital Arabia", Egyptian Communications and Information Technology Minister Ahmed Nazif said: "We will be offering free Internet on all phone lines by the end of the year." There are more than 60 Internet-service providers in Egypt, and the government is encouraging them to subsidize the cost of computers and modems.
Jordan's King Abdullah, a noted IT enthusiast, gave his patronage to the founding meeting of the Arabic Internet Names Consortium in Amman at the beginning of April. Amman was a fitting place for the Consortium to hold its first meeting, the capital of a country that is determined to part of the Internet action. The Newsweek report, for example, said that the Jordanian city of Irbid hopes to claim the Guinness world record for the most Internet cafes on a si
ngle road.
The Government of Jordan has recently decided to provide computers in every school and to require elementary schoolchildren to learn how to use a computer. This points the way forward for a coming generation. Distance learning will be a boon to isolated communities and especially their children. They will receive a passport to the knowledge economy and a better future.
While the IT pioneers forge ahead, the entire Arab world will soon be wired if farsighted Arab business leaders have anything to do with it. The Arab world has one priceless advantage that leaps at anyone who looks at a map showing the 22 countries of the Arab League - their shared language and a geographical entity stretching from the Atlantic shore to the Gulf.
The International Chamber of Commerce intends to help Arab business to build on that natural advantage through our network of national committees in the Arab countries. We have appointed one of the Arab world's leading e-business authorities, Jordanian entrepreneur Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, to chair our work on telecommunications, information technology and e-business.
ICC is well represented in the Arab World and can serve as a catalyst for action. Adnan Kassar of Lebanon was ICC President for 1999-2000. We have national committees in Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Tunisia. Building an Internet-based knowledge economy for all the Arab nations will be one of the main topics of our regional meeting in Bahrain at the end of this month.
Meeting in Muscat last October, ICC and the Arab Knowledge Management Society - a not-for-profit association - mandated a special task force to set up e-business programmes for Arab countries. Their objective, expressed in the two organizations' Muscat Declaration, was to create "an enabling e-business environment, including strategies for infrastructure development, education, legislation, privatization and capacity building."
The Muscat Declaration is based on the conviction that Arab countries must transform their economies to take advantage of the explosion in information technology.
But business can achieve little without government support and so far it has been unclear how far leaders of all the Arab nations will be prepared to embrace the IT revolution and the changes it will undoubtedly bring.
Signs that Arab governments as a group are becoming more willing to accept and even encourage the advent of the knowledge economy were evident at the Amman Summit of the Arab League on 27-28 March. In their final communiqué, the assembled monarchs and presidents devoted a passage to information technology that is worth quoting in full:
"Aware of the fact that the communication and information revolutions have begun to cross geographical boundaries, the Arab leaders assert the need to accord priority to developing the Arab capabilities in the area of information technology and communications, and to consider this a vital domain for cooperation and coordination at the Arab level."
Other paragraphs on trade and economic issues were consistent with this spirit of openness and willingness to pursue integration on a pan-Arab scale. Although the sentiments expressed were nothing new, there were once again encouraging words about efforts to set up the Arab Free Trade Area and a decision was announced to cut non-customs administrative, technical and financial barriers.
The Arab countries said they want to work together more closely in many areas, including improving the investment climate, better land sea and air links between them, and pursuing integration of power supplies. Business in the Arab world will be eagerly waiting for words to be turned into action.
Nobody can doubt that getting wired will be an enormous undertaking for the Arab countries. A modern, totally digital telecommunications infrastructure, has become the cornerstone for national development. Such an infrastructure decides whether countries join the ranks of the "information rich" or languish among the "information poor".
As the ICC e-business chief Abu-Ghazaleh puts it: "Arab governments, business leaders and private citizens can no longer afford to be na¯ve about the consequences of IT. Information technology is no longer a luxury, but has become an absolute necessity. It requires widespread economic and structural reforms. It requires development of infrastructure and, perhaps most importantly, it requires education."
An immediate practical task is to Arabize the Internet, and that is where the Arabic Internet Names Consortium, which has just met in Amman, comes in. The aim is to enable Internet users to use the Arab language and its standard characters set to write domain names in Arabic and navigate the Internet. This will open the door to the internationalization of the Internet for all Arabic-speaking people, allowing access at all levels without linguistic barriers.
The knowledge economy is one of those new concepts that are suddenly on everybody's lips, although relatively few people bother to ask themselves what it really implies. One answer is surely that it is potentially the great equalizer. It is an opportunity for developing countries, including those with scant natural resources, to sell their people's skills and natural ability on foreign markets.
Computer programming, airline revenue accounting, insurance claims are all being outsourced to developing countries. The Internet opens up hitherto undreamed of educational opportunities. Why not an electronic learn-to-read service for all a country's primary schools? New medical developments can be communicated online to hospitals, plus even a diagnosis back-up facility. The ability to consult specialists in distant countries can be the means of pooling global medical knowledge.
Here are just a few of the applications already in use in the English-speaking world:
· handholding for Internet novices - an AOL subscriber in the US could well find himself "talking" to a Filipino techie on the helpline;
· keying-in of telephone directories and other lists;
· interactive information services for tourists;
· Busy doctors in California can send case notes to be processed overnight by a bright Irish youngster and find them on their computer screens properly formatted the next day.
If it can happen in the world where English is a common language, it can happen in Arabic for the Arab nations as well.
The private sector will be the doers, but don't underestimate the role of governments. If business builds the vehicle for the journey across the digital divide, it is up to governments to smooth the path.
Pitfalls for governments and business to avoid:
Governments have an essential role in supplying a regulatory
environment that nurtures IT development. That is the indispensable beginning, but it is not all. Here are some considerations for both governments and the private sector:
· Taxpayers' money may be wasted on efforts to build domestic high-tech industries protected by trade barriers.
· Partnerships are the most sensible way to achieve progress, rather than trying to reinvent the wheel.
· Be ready to buy in the technology. Exploit all the advantages of being able to leapfrog to the newest technologies.
· Competition has proved to be an effective way of bringing down costs of telecommunications services. State-owned telecom monopolies tend to keep prices high.
· IT is not a magic wand. Economies will still need to be open to foreign trade and investment; intellectual property rights must continue to be upheld. Predictability, sound governance, high standards of business ethics and transparency remain as important as ever.
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Maria Livanos Cattaui is Secretary General of the International Chamber of Commerce