The first Emirati to feature on a list of leading global thinkers has highlighted the need for more Arabic content online at a seminar in the US.
Noura Al Kaabi, chief executive of media hub twofour54, was speaking at the Transformational Trends event in Washington.
The seminar last week was organised by Foreign Policy magazine and the US state department.
The magazine’s list of the 100 leading global thinkers of the past year, honoured at the event, included Ms Al Kaabi, Pope Francis and the president of Iran, Hassan Rouhani.
At the seminar, Ms Al Kaabi extended her gratitude to the UAE’s Rulers and Government for their work in empowering women.
She gave a special mention of appreciation to Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, wife of the late President Sheikh Zayed and the Mother of the Nation, who championed women’s empowerment and development initiatives.
Ms Al Kaabi said more strategies were needed to address the disconnect between the number of Arabic-speaking internet users globally and the percentage of Arabic content online.
David Rothkopf, chief executive of Foreign Policy, told the seminar that while Arabic was one of the 10 most important languages in the world, online Arabic content did not exceed 3 per cent.
Ms Al Kaabi stressed that the growth of Arabic online was an indicator of the increasingly strong profile that Arabic heritage and culture had globally.
She said Arabic was one of the fastest growing languages online, but that the number of Arabic-language internet users was only about 141 million out of a population of 350 million.
Arabic is the eighth-most used online language worldwide, with English first.
Ms Al Kaabi said the gap was due to delayed internet uptake in may Arab countries, a lack of tools and the fact that young Arabs use other languages.
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