RIYADH: The Literature, Publishing & Translation Commission, representing the Ministry of Culture, signed a memorandum of understanding with the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization on Wednesday to establish the Arab Translation Observatory in Riyadh. 

It is one of several projects established by the Kingdom with ALECSO to create a digital bibliographic database and provide translation services. 

The observatory aims to support a unified Arab plan for the Arabic translation movement by coordinating and unifying translation efforts. 

The Minister of Culture thanked the Kingdom’s leadership for sponsoring the initiative. 

ALECSO Director-General Mohamed Ould Amar thanked Saudi Arabia for its partnership, making the observatory a leading reference for certified translation from and into Arabic.

Amar said that the collaboration came at a time when the region needed to keep up with global and cultural knowledge, making translation from and into Arabic one of the most important projects in this era.

The observatory, he explained, would connect translation channels by monitoring and documenting the translation movement in Arab countries, as well as providing accurate data and statistics on the reality and movement of the translation industry using the latest technologies. 

The observatory will have several departments that offer specialized services such as the bibliography of translated books, translation studies and research, a directory of publishing houses and translators, and a list of practitioners in the translation sector both locally and internationally. 

It is ALECSO’s sixth regional body, and it comes 32 years after the organization’s last external center was established.