Khoja opens Arab publishers conference 3 Riyadh

On his part, Prince Turki al-Faisal, the Chairman of the board of
director of King Faisal research and Islamic studies center and who
is the Honorary President of the Saudi publishers society,
highlighted the great attention given by King Abdullah to the
cultural sector.
He noted that according to a report released by the Arab Thought
Organization in 2007 that there is only one book for each 12000 Arab
citizens, while there is one book for each Britons and one book for
each 900 Germans.
Prince Turki said the average of reading in the Arab world does not
exceed four percent compared to the average of reading in England.
This issues needs an elaborated study, he said.
Prince Turki urged all concerned parties to conduct an accurate
statistics on the production of the printed Arab thought effective
from 2010, he said adding that this issue should be given a great
attention by the Arab publishers union and the regional unions.
He pointed out that according to the records of King Fahd National
Library, 5226 titles were registered in 1429.
As regards the number of deposited books, Prince Turki said their
number was 2662, noting that difference between the deposited and
registered books amounted to 2564.
He noted that in 1428, the number of registered books was 5391 titles
while the deposited books was 2979 titles, which means that
difference between the registered and deposited books was 2412
titles.
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