Ambitious plans: Abu Dhabi aims to become the Arab World's principal destination for business, tourism, sports and culture.

THE e-mailed invitation to visit the Abu Dhabi book fair leaves me somewhat puzzled. The Cairo book fair is a well-known event, news of which makes its way routinely into the English language press. But Abu Dhabi?

My sense of surprise deepens when Google shows up that this is the 17th book fair held in the Emirate. What could possibly be special about this year's event? The answer takes time to present itself. And when it does, I realise it is not confined to the book fair alone, but Abu Dhabi's ambitious attempt to become the hub of global culture in the Arab world.

The book fair first. On day one, a motley group of us — mainly publishers but also some journalists invited from different parts of the world — are gathered in a bus and decanted at the gates of the exhibition centre, situated on the outskirts of the city. It is a roomy facility that fuses glass and steel in a manner that evokes (at once) modernity and predictability.

Comparisons

The fair, which moved only this year to the centre, has attracted about 400 publishers from almost 50 countries — their stalls laid out symmetrically in one cavernous hall. But having visited the Buch Messe at Frankfurt last year, it is impossible not to draw comparisons. "After Frankfurt, this one seems like a large bookshop," jokes a fellow invitee as we stroll through the stands.

`Frankfurt' and `bookshop' are appropriate expressions when talking about this fair. This year, the organisers of the Frankfurt book fair have signed a consulting and service contract with the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage, which hopes to make the annual book fair the leading one in the Arab-speaking world. The influence of Frankfurt is impossible to miss. Spaces have been carved out for a Discussion Forum (where publishers, writers and intellectuals debate anything from book licensing rights to multiculturalism to political moderation); a Business Centre (where publishers and agents may strike book deals or simply get acquainted); and a well-appointed Press Centre (which is always well stocked with croissants and coffee). In the Children's Corner, painting competitions are held and stories read aloud to groups of eager attentive children. The organisers have also instituted the Sheikh Zayed Book Awards, which recognises outstanding individuals who have enriched the cultural and literary life of the Arab world. With a prize pot of $ 1.9 million dollars, the awards — which are handed out in nine categories at a brief and efficiently organised function — are the biggest of its kind in the world.

The main purpose for the Frankfurt-Abu Dhabi cooperation is to change the entire character of the event. To transform a fair that was essentially a book bazaar into a platform for the publishing industry — a place where rights are sold, translations commissioned, authors signed up, and ideas exchanged. "This is an experimental year for us," says Jumaa al-Qubaisi, Director of the fair. "We want to be professional, gather publishers from all over the world, change our image altogether."

Challenges

The challenge in such endeavour of course is not merely about transforming the fair. It is also about reshaping the very state of the book industry in the Arab world. Book publishing in Arabic is plagued by a host of inter-related problems such as copyright protection, censorship, the lack of a distribution system and problems ranged from copyright protection, censorship, the lack of a distribution system and — quite simply — the lack of adequate material, in translation or in mother language. The lack of an integrated distribution process is related to the localised structure of the Arab publishing industry; most publishers own bookshops, which stock their own books and offer only limited titles from other publishers.

The 22-member countries of the Arab League make up about five per cent of the world's population, but UNESCO estimated, in 1991, the share of Arabic books at a dismal 1.1 per cent of the total output. You hear concerns about the reading habit in the region just about everywhere. Says Mohammed Khalaf Al Mazrouie, Director General of the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage: "We must admit we are very poor in reading. We need our children to start reading early. We need to start an awareness campaign."

Al Mazrouie and Al Qubaisi see this fair as just the first step towards a much larger project for the Arab publishing industry. "We need to create a data base of Arab publishers, which doesn't exist now. We need an ISBN agency. We need more translations. We need to create a distribution network," says Al Qubaisi, as he reels off the number of obstacles to make Abu Dhabi the focal point for the Arab publishing industry. Adds Juergen Boos, Director of the Frankfurt Book Fair: "As a global publishing meeting point, Frankfurt has to be ahead of everything else. The challenge in Abu Dhabi is to create a platform for professional publishers as we have done there."

Out in the stalls though, some publisher/booksellers strike a more pragmatic note. "I know of the plans. But most publishers are here mainly to sell books," says Khalid Al Maali of the German-based Al Jamal Publishing. At another stall nearby, Rana Idris of the Lebanon's Dar Al Adab, a Left-leaning publishing house, laments the prevalence of piracy: "We need to have exclusive rights. We find our own publications routinely pirated."

At a larger level, the 17th edition of the book fair is what Al Mazrouie calls "one element" and a "small thing" in the larger strategy to position Abu Dhabi as "a centre of international culture in the Arab world." The mantle has belonged at different times to Beirut, Cairo and Baghdad — cities that have suffered from political turmoil and economic recession.

Nothing symbolises Abu Dhabi's attempt to snatch it more forcefully than the audaciously ambitious project at Saadiyat Island. The 27-square kilometre island, which lies just 500 metres offshore Abu Dhabi city, is to be developed into a complete visitor and residential destination in three stages by 2018 for a staggering $ 28 billion.

Forget the 29 hotels, the three marinas, the two golf courses, the leisure facilities, the nature preserves, the elite villas and the tony sea view apartments in the master plan.

Cultural institutions

Look instead at the cultural district, which will house five cultural institutions and a park to hold international fairs and events.

In it will be the world's biggest Guggenheim museum, all of 30,000 square metres — an extraordinary Frank Gehry-designed building that on the first glance resembles a careless jumble of towers, cubes and cones but on further appraisal reveals a cluster that resembles or at least is inspired by a desert township.

The other museum brand that will bring its art to Saadiyat's cultural district is the Louvre; the 700-million franchise is expected to take another six years to complete. Designed by French architect Jean Nouvel, the building is an arresting mix of intricacy and simplicity; its futuristic flying saucer dome leaking dappled sunlight on minimalist pearly-white galleries.

But it is the Iraqi-born Zaha Hadid's 30,000-square metre Performance Centre that takes one's breath away — enormous, egg-like and embryonic, its glass exteriors and its sinuous curvature lending it a primordial organic quality. In comparison, the Sydney Opera House seems like the handiwork of an ultra-conservative.

Dubai has the flash, but Abu Dhabi has the cash, as they say. The latter, which is the largest of the seven Emirates and far and away the richest — with some 10 per cent of the world's known oil reserves, has woken up to the fact that it is well positioned to compete with other places in the region such as Qatar, Bahrain and Dubai. It is still the new kid on the Arab block, but Abu Dhabi — ruled since 2004 by Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan — believes it is well situated to become the area's principal destination for business, tourism, sports and culture.

As it does in Dubai, size matters; the race is to do things bigger and better. An example of this passion is Abu Dhabi's 400-room Emirates Palace Hotel, which boasts of being a seven-star facility and is rumoured to have cost a mind-boggling Rs. 15,000 crores to construct. With its 128 kitchens and pantries, its Swarovski crystal chandeliers, its maze of corridors, its gold-gilded dome, and its lavender-scented bed sheets, the Government-built hotel is a mammoth monument to opulence, decadence and kitsch. This year, Abu Dhabi bagged the rights to host a Formula 1 Grand Prix, an event that is expected to raise the Emirate's profile.

Premier tourist destination

With about 85 per cent of the total land mass of the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi — with its rolling sand dunes, coastal plains, desert wastelands and mountains — reckons it has the natural resources to become a premier tourism destination.

The truth is that there is not a whole lot to do beyond shopping, golf and water sports. But if you are so inclined, you could go dune driving, which sounds tame but is like riding a roller coaster on the ground. Strapped in four-wheel drives with tires somewhat deflated, tourists are driven up and down the steep inclines of sand dunes by nonchalant drivers. It is reputed to be a risky activity and someone in my vehicle asks the driver whether he has ever toppled over. "Oh, yes," he replies matter-of-factly. Two days later, I hear that someone died during a dune-bashing trip when the vehicle he was in overturned.

If you are looking for cultural heritage, then Al Ain is perhaps the natural destination. Located in an oasis, the town has several modest forts, archaeological sites and a museum that cannot fail to remind you how modest life was before oil production commenced in 1962.

Two hours away lies Jabal Hafeet, the UAE's highest mountain at 1160 metres, a part of the Hajar mountain range. From the Grand Mercure hotel, which is close to the summit, the view is extraordinary. The ochre of the desert against a dying sun, the dull glow of lights that grow brighter as the day fades, and the startling patches of green amidst a sea of sand.

It is a good place to contemplate the future of an Emirate with an ambition — not to speak of the money — to transform itself into a fashionable destination and ensure that its name rings a bell all over the world.

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