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Arab Publishers Call for Apex Body to
Overcome Distribution Challenges

DUBAI - Arab publishers have called for creation of an apex body to overcome the challenges of distribution throughout the Arab world.

The call was made at an open forum organised by the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation on the third day of its debut participation at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2008, the world’s largest trade fair for books, which concluded on October 19.

The forum highlighted issues pertaining to the current state and future prospects of the publishing industry in the Arab world.

While many participants urged the need to learn from the experiences of advanced countries in the domain of distribution, an idea was mooted to separate publishing from distribution in the region to ensure seamless supply of books to end-users in all Arab countries.

Yasser Hareb, Acting CEO of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation, said the Foundation’s first participation in the Frankfurt Book Fair succeeded in drawing significant interest and appreciation from not only authors, publishers and publishing industry professionals, but also from the general public at large which turned up in large numbers.