Arab Knowledge Report 2009: Towards Productive

Arab countries–Egypt, Algeria, Lebanon,Yemen, Jordan, and Tunisia–this cost isless than half the world average.The fall in the price of internet access,particularly in high population countriessuch as Egypt, indicates policies thatencourage internet use. However, it isnecessary to go further than these policiesin confronting the difficulties which broadswathes of Arab society undoubtedly facein utilising technology applications. Thismeans giving attention to developingArabic content and acquiring technologyable to process it. It is also necessary toadopt creative approaches that makeinteraction with computers and the neteasier for the illiterate and those lackingcomputer skills using touch-sensitivescreens and user-friendly software. 6On a reading of the data presentedin the preceding paragraphs (Figure 4-1’spresentation of the ICT index from theWorld Bank database and the data indicatingan expansion in internet use in some Arabcountries), we find some improvement inthe indigenisation of knowledge tools andtechnologies. However, the data neitherput these matters in context, nor revealtheir actual contribution to the productiveemployment of these technologies.THE ARABIC LANGUAGE ANDTHE INTERNETThe number of those using the internetin Arabic approached 60 million at thebeginning of 2008. That is, the access ofArabic speakers to the internet is close to17 per cent of the population of the Arabcountries. 7 This proportion falls belowthe world average which is close to 22per cent. Arabic also has one of the lowestpenetration rates among the top-ten groupof world languages on the net. While itis close to the internet penetration rateof Chinese speakers, the number ofChinese web pages tips the balance infavour of the latter language. As for Arabiclanguage penetration in comparison withHebrew, the latter comes out on top withalmost 66 per cent penetration, placingit in the ranks of the languages ofadvanced nations such as Japan (73.8 percent) and Germany (63.5 per cent).The number of Arabic speakers usingthe net is close to 4.1 per cent of all internetusers globally. In terms of global internetuse, this puts Arabic in seventh placeamong the world’s top ten languages, andis close to the Arab countries’ proportionof the world’s population (see Figure 4-6).Table 4-1 gives a picture of the place ofArabic among the world’s top ten languagesin terms of numbers of speakers, its rateof growth on the internet between 2000TABLE 4-1Top tenlanguagesTop ten languages used on the net(number of internet users by language)Worldpopulationfor thislanguage2007(millions)Growthof thislanguageon the net2000-2008(%)Internetpenetrationbylanguage(%)Internetusers bylanguage(millions)Internetusers as apercentageof worldusers(%)English 2039 203.5 21.1 430.8 29.4Chinese 1365 755.1 20.2 276.2 18.9Spanish 452 405.3 27.6 124.7 8.5Japanese 127 99.7 73.8 94 6.4French 410 458.7 16.6 68.1 4.7German 96 121.0 63.5 61.2 4.2Arabic 357 2063.7 16.8 59.9 4.1Portuguese 240 668.0 24.3 58.2 4.0Korean 73 82.9 47.9 34.8 2.4Italian 58 162.9 59.7 34.7 2.4Top tenlanguages5218 278.3 23.8 1242.7 84.9Otherlanguages1458 580.4 15.2 221.0 15.1Total 6676 305.5 21.9 1463.6 100.0Notes:1) These statistics were updated in June 2008.2) Internet penetration is the ratio between the total of internet users speaking a language and theestimated total population speaking that language.3) Data derived from publications of the International Telecommunications Union, the ComputerIndustry Almanac, Nielsen Net Ratings, and other reliable sources.4) World population information comes from the U.S. Census Bureau.For definitions and help in obtaining details on a number of languages see the website ofSite Surfing GuideExample for data interpretation: there are around 125 million Spanish-speaking users of the internetand this number represents close to 9 per cent of world internet use. Of all those who speak Spanish(some 452 million people), 27.6 per cent use the internet. During the period 2001-2007, the number ofSpanish speakers using the internet increased by 405 per cent.Source: Website of Internet World Stats in January 2009Arabic has one of thelowest penetrationrates among the toptengroup of worldlanguages on the netINFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGIES IN THE ARAB COUNTRIES149