Arab Knowledge Report 2009: Towards Productive

of national partnerships aimed at similarends. 14 However, it will also be necessaryto reduce the cost of securing thecomputers produced within this projectto a much greater extent so that theybecome available to those with middle andlow incomes.THE SOFTWARE INDUSTRYSince the end of the last century, thesoftware industry has grown within theenvironment and economics of theinternet. Control of the software marketby multinational companies has made itdifficult for local market requirements toprovide a base for the introduction of asoftware industry. In many cases, this hasbeen made possible by exploitation ofqualified human resources in developingcountries like India. In developing countriesin general, the role of government islimited to facilitating the operation ofmultinational companies through thecreation of legal frameworks favourableto the protection of their software frompiracy and securing a climate that allows itswidest possible distribution.The software industry is still embryonicin the Arab countries in comparison withother countries or with what it ought tobe. One news report 15 even describesthe state of the software industry in theArab countries as pitiable, pointing to thecontinued absence of the Arabs from theworld software map despite the availabilityof material and human capabilities andthe tangible returns that this industry–which has revived the economies ofmany countries–could achieve. Thereare promising opportunities to makereturns on the local and regional marketsby meeting, in the first place, Arabicsoftware requirements. The world marketsare also brimming with opportunities.Computers are not the sole focus of thesoftware industry. Indeed, they accountfor a declining share of its attention due tothe increasing proliferation of computercomponents in a broad spectrumof products and applications acrosstelecommunications, defence, security,transportation, and media, in additionto growing product lines of office anddomestic devices intended for general usein sectors like tourism, banking, and theengineering industries.Lack of awareness of its importanceand of the returns it could generate is a keyimpediment to an Arab software industry.Hence investments directed at the nationalsoftware industry are limited, while readymade,and even arabized, software isimported from abroad. However a numberof Arab countries including Egypt andJordan have over the last few years begun totake steps to activate software manufactureand guarantee accessories supply. Included,for example, within Egypt’s ICT strategyare items designed to support exportorientedsoftware manufacture. Egypt hasalso created a body devoted to developingthe ICT industry. The number of dedicatedsoftware houses in Egypt is estimated inthe hundreds. Sources indicate that thesecompanies have, since the beginningof the decade, exported software worthhundreds of millions of dollars annually.The volume of their sales was expected toreach $500 million in 2005. Statistics goingback to 2005 report that up to 25,000software engineers work in the sector.Egyptian universities are also estimated toproduce approximately 20,000 graduatesspecialised in the software field every year.However statistics from the beginning ofthe current decade indicate that returnsper programmer from software industrieselsewhere in the world are several timesgreater than those achieved by Egyptianprogrammers. Per programmer returns inEgypt reach $10,000 per year, which is lessthan that generated by a programmer inIndia ($15,000), and many times less thanthat generated by programmers in Ireland($38,000) or Israel ($140,000). 16In Jordan, local universities andinternational companies have entered intopartnership to cooperate in softwareproduction. In 2006, one of the pioneeringprogrammes in this field 17 developed plansthat aim to attract direct foreign investmentControl of thesoftware marketby multinationalcompanies has madeit difficult for localmarket requirementsto provide a base forthe introduction ofa software industryThe software industryis still embryonic inthe Arab countriesin comparison withother countriesor with what itought to beINFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGIES IN THE ARAB COUNTRIES155