Arab Knowledge Report 2009: Towards Productive

Freedom House and Heritage Institute,government offices such as the US Patentand Trademark Office, and other bodies.These bodies undertake the preparation ofknowledge data by gathering and collatingdata available from other sources or bycarrying out surveys or polls or on thebasis of their administrative records.The chief national sources forknowledge data in the Arab countries arethe specialist statistical bureaux attachedto government departments. At theforefront of these bodies is the nationalcentral statistical agency of the state whichprovides technical oversight and works tocoordinate statistical activity within thestate. Statistical departments are also usuallyto be found in some state agencies relevantto knowledge, such as the educationalinstitutions, institutions concerned withICT, and agencies that regulate industrialactivity, foreign trade, investment, andintellectual property rights. The privatesector in the Arab countries plays a limitedrole in the provision of knowledge data,although this role is starting to grow in someinstitutions operating in fields connectedwith knowledge, such as the privateuniversities, mobile phone companies, andbanks. The foreign sector also contributesto the provision of data concerningknowledge in the Arab countries, especiallyin the Gulf countries where this sector isactive in education, commerce, technologytransfer, ICT, finance, and others.It is possible to divide sources ofknowledge data into two main kinds onthe basis of how they gather this data:administrative data and statistical surveydata. By administrative data is meantthe data extracted from the records ofthe bodies that provide services, suchas educational institutions, phone andinternet companies, banks, and the agenciesconcerned with regulation of trade,industry, property rights, and others. Themost significant feature of administrativedata is its availability in detailed form andfor time periods that may extend manyyears into the past. However this data, beinga by-product of undelimited specificationsand unsorted with regard to its relevanceto knowledge, may not be expressive. It isfrequently not ready for use and statisticalprocessing and tabulation may be requiredin order to render it of use. Administrativedata from some agencies also overlaps withdata from other agencies or is incompleteand limited to the activity of the specificagency.Knowledge data extracted fromstatistical surveys includes the data fromperiodic sector-based surveys, such asthose of industrial, service, and financialinstitutions that are implementedseasonally or annually, comprehensivecensuses such as population, residential,and economic institution censuses, opinionpolls, and specialist statistical surveys. Inthe Arab countries, statistical surveys andpublications devoted to knowledge are rare,with the exception of the basic attempts ofsome Arab countries to gather and publishdata related to science and technology,which for the most part concentrate onthe numbers of those working in researchand development activity and expenditureon these activities. In comparison withdata extracted from administrative records,knowledge data extracted from statisticalsurveys is distinguished by its greaterconformity to the requirements of the datausers, having been designed to serve these.However, collection of such data requiresthe devotion of financial resources andthe availability of statistical expertise andother requirements which make most of itavailable only for limited time periods andfor limited areas of knowledge.The sources of data for the knowledgeindicators in the Arab countries differaccording to the indicator. Data for someindicators is available from a number ofsources, while at the same time data forother indicators is available from onlyone source or not available at all. It is ofcourse preferable for data for an indicatorto be available from more than one source,provided that such data are mutuallycomplementary and consistent. However,data for the same indicator from differentsources are often mutually inconsistent orANNEX 3. MEASUREMENT OF THE ARAB COUNTRIES’ KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY265