Saudi Arabia: The beginnings of a knowledge-based society?

The Arab News, Saudi Arabia's English-language daily, reports that the Riyadh International Book Fair 2007 which opened Tuesday, will feature over 200,000 books and hundreds of publishing houses from the Arab world. As the Arab News reports:

Shoura Council member Muhammad Al-Zulfa described the event as “a national treasure.” “This is a national day in which we salute our poets, our authors and our thinkers,” he said, adding that the event plays an important role in Arab and Islamic culture, not just Saudi Arabia.

“Here in Riyadh we are proving to the world that we are a nation that embraces culture, civilization and productivity despite a small minority among us trying to cocoon us in a small environment isolated from world culture,” he said.

He said by sponsoring such an international book exhibition, Saudis joined hands in combating the ideology of an extreme minority in the Kingdom who refuses to open up to the world.

Recall that it was only a few years ago that the United Nations in the Arab Human Development Report 2002 revealed the following surely embarrassing facts:

The Arab world translates about 330 books annually, one fifth of the number that Greece translates. The cumulative total of translated books since the Caliph Maa'moun's time (the ninth century) is about 100,000, almost the average that Spain translates in one year (Galal, S., 1999).

The Riyadh Book Fair would seem to be an indication that the Saudis are serious about addressing at least part of the knowledge deficit the UN report was talking about.

Update: Bernie expresses some skepticism:

What booth would I find[1] Writings of Martin Buber, IB Singer, and Philip Roth, and[2] What booth would I NOT find the Protocols of the Elders of Zion!