11 December 2003

Speech by H. E. Eng. Jean Louis Cardahi, Minister of Telecommunication, Lebanon

Language in Support of Integration and Regional Information Strategies - the Role of Telecommunications

Introduction

The last decade of the twentieth century witnessed the emergence of the “information society” in the industrialized countries, introducing national and global effects.

A “digital divide” emerged between developed and developing countries.

Aiming in part at reducing the digital divide this summit will help in increasing awareness, and provide mechanisms for developing countries to more forward.

ICT strategies will help improve overall economic conditions, create working opportunities and contribute to social advancement.

Some countries have completed national ICT strategies, while others have no apparent ICT strategy, accomplished goals that other countries have planned for through national strategies.

Conclusively, there is no standard approach to building National ICT strategies. In general, however, they are built to respond to challenges and opportunities posed by the emergence of technology.

In addressing jour main subject of how can language support integration and regional information strategies – the role of telecommunication, language is a key indicator and facilitator for the advancement of the information society. How much is our language being utilized in our information society? Are we being blocked by this language barrier which is clear by our translations from English the dominating language in ICT? Are these translations reflecting our visions and our way of living or are we copying from others blindly?

To answer some of these worrying questions, let us take a look at:

Arabic digital content

Further analysis of our area reveals further classification as follows:

• Counties that have developed Arabic Web hosting capabilities,
• Countries that are developing Arabic Web sites,
• Countries that do not have Arabic Web sites at all.

Arabic is being increasingly used on the Internet, despite the obstacles faced which are:

• Lack of unified standards, particularly in the field of character sets.
• Insufficient telecom infrastructure and low level of access.
• Lack of Arabic content on the Internet.

Global Internet statistics can be found categorized by language. They show that the estimated number of Arabic language Internet users is 2.4% of total Asian languages users, 1.2% of total non-English users, and 0.8% of total world users. However, the Arabic language population constitutes 18.1% of total Asian languages population, 5.3% of total non-English languages population, and 4.8% of total world population.

The English language has a dominant presence on the WWW. Current estimates of this dominance indicate that approximately 70-80% of existing Web sites are in English. The reason for this dominance is that English speaking people form the highest percentage of online users. Hence, they work to increase the amount of content available in that language, and so on in a form of a positive feedback loop.

Currently, number of non-English speaking Internet users is rising steadily as penetration rates in non-English speaking countries continue to rise.

Arabization of the Internet

Arabic is the mother tongue of over 300 million people in 22 Arab countries. While many Arabs use English or French as their preferred language on the Internet, the majority of Arabs, use Arabic. If the Arab world is to be a knowledge based society in which all of its organizations and people can participate then it is essential that as much as possible of the digital communication network be accessed and used to create and access Arabic language content. In this respect, bridging the language divide is progressing on three fronts.
Firstly, the Arabization of the Internet.
Secondly, governments creating the right environment
The third front is that of publications and availability of Arabic material.
Noting that there is a strong need for developing multilingual domain names.

ICT applications in education

Some countries have managed to realize effective e-learning models using ICT. Others have focused on the computerization of the applications of Ministries of Education, but have still to develop effective e-learning and distance learning communities, while few others are still struggling to provide basic computer facilities to schools and universities. Many countries have already started collaboration to establish regional virtual universities.

The Lebanese context:

Due to the high level of the private universities and schools in Lebanon, ICT capacity building is gaining ground in the education sector; resulting in an important private initiative that is the establishment of BERITECH – a private techno-pole.

In addition to the above, Lebanon has managed through its private sector initiatives to target the digital divide by providing rural areas with free internet access through the PiPOP having: Short term objectives

1. Right to access technology and information
2. Acquisition of computer and ICT skills

And Medium to long term objectives

1. Improving standards of living
2. Creating professional opportunities
3. Bridging the digital gap between urban and rural areas

Role of Telecommunications in addressing the language barriers

Higher levels of access facilitate language content. In short, the role of telecommunications as pertains to language in support of integration and regional information strategies, is that of providing timely access and feed back for vast content creation and regional consensus building. Thus it is important to see how ready is the Arab world infrastructure.

Infrastructure Readiness in the Arab World

Based on a study prepared by ESCWA, our region suffers from digital divide patterns, mainly along national wealth and personal income levels, as illustrated below, with four distinct categories of countries, each with its own set of characteristics:

1. Countries with structural issues and very low teledensity rates, their levels of performance are well below world standards, and are insufficiently equipped.
2. Countries where public initiative and deregulation allows for progress, but remains slow compared to world standards; striving to increase teledensity. Equipment is increasingly available, albeit on a limited scale.
3. Countries with wealthy areas where teledensity exceeds some Western standards. Due to high income levels and purchasing power, as well as strong literacy, it’s use of Internet and PC equipment is high.
4. ICT infrastructure is clearly positioned as one of the top global performers in terms of fixed voice telephony, mobile telephony, Internet dissemination in addition to ISDN, DSL and other advanced satellite and cable services. (Dubai Internet City)

Future Recommendations

Create a regional committee comprising of ICT, educational and economical sectors’ experts in the region.
This committee should work on the Arabic Region to achieve the following:

1. Specify appropriate data as a base for analysis.
2. Collect data in the most effective and productive way.
3. Work on a global Arab ICT strategy.
4. Specify short and long term objectives and targets
5. Specify obstacles behind any progress towards the targets

WSIS 2003

Information: aisi@uneca.org
© Copyright ECA 2003