RIYADH — The Saudi Literature, Publishing and Translation Commission launched its new strategy aimed at developing the literature, publishing and translation sectors as well as supporting and enabling practitioners in the field.

This is consistent with the Ministry of Culture’s endeavor to achieve the three main objectives of the project to develop the cultural sector, namely: promoting culture as a way of life, enabling culture to contribute to economic growth and creating opportunities for global cultural exchange.

The role of the Literature, Publishing and Translation Commission is to organize the three sectors and motivate all practitioners, including writers, authors, publishers and translators.

Its role includes setting laws and regulations, building a production environment, developing funding channels, encouraging the private sector to invest in cultural development, and empowering the nonprofit sector to play vital roles.

It also includes developing professional and educational programs to develop talents and employ modern technologies, and activating the role of the cultural milieu in implementing the commission’s initiatives and executive programs.

The strategy comes in line with Saudi Vision 2030 and the National Strategy for Culture, while its key objectives are derived from both. The commission developed certified performance indicators to follow up with its implementation and ensure its effective contribution to achieving the main goals of the Ministry of Culture.

For the literature sector, the strategy has placed great emphasis on strengthening and enriching Saudi literature by providing a creativity-stimulating environment.

It also seeks to develop talent in various literary fields, enabling Saudi writers to develop and publish their literary product, supporting children's and young adult literature, literary criticism and philosophy activities, besides establishing literature as a key component in individuals’ lives.

In light of this, the commission will sponsor advanced educational, training and talent identification programs such as writing retreats, book fairs, training workshops for various literary genres, and establishing a creative writing academy.

This is in addition to working with the Ministry of Education to enrich educational curricula with critical and philosophical skills, developing partnerships throughout the Kingdom to back literary events, and involve the profit and non-profit sectors in financing and managing literary events.

The commission will also sponsor major literature, philosophy and literary criticism conferences to create an active literary ecosystem in various regions of the Kingdom throughout the year, shedding light on pioneers and talents, as well as motivating Saudi writers to attend global platforms and participate in international forums.

As for the publishing sector, the strategy is concerned with setting the legislative and regulatory frameworks for the publishing industry in the Kingdom, improving the business environment in the sector, raising the competitiveness of Saudi publishing houses regionally and globally, and developing the system of contractual relationships between all parties operating in the Saudi publishing market.

The strategy will also work to boost Saudi publications in all fields, expand publishing vessels in line with market needs, and increase investment in the Saudi publishing market.

The publishing sector will be responsible for holding and developing the services of Saudi book fairs, most prominently the Riyadh International Book fair, which attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors annually.

It will also attract international and regional business sectors, implement entertainment and cultural programs for all segments of society, and offer diverse training courses for Saudi publishers to enhance professionalism and provide them with commercial skills needed to compete regionally and globally.

With regard to the translation sector, the strategy sets out broad plans to organize and develop this sector, which will contribute to serving Arabic content, transferring Saudi works to all languages of the world, improving commercial translation services, developing the translation profession and career paths in addition to boosting the Kingdom’s role in cultural and cognitive exchange as well as serving the Arabic language.

In this context, the translation sector will support all translation efforts in the Kingdom, including professionals, amateurs, profit and nonprofit sectors, and utilize them to enrich Arabic content.

It will also work to translate Saudi content into various languages, establish standards and requirements for commercial translation offices to ensure nationalization and combat commercial cover-up, besides working on accreditation mechanisms for Saudi translators to increase their contractual opportunities based on their professional credits and field of specialization.

This sector will strive to coordinate Arab translation efforts through the Arab Observatory of Translation, which documents the translation movement in the Arab world and serves as a reliable reference and a gate to knowledge and cultural exchange.

Through its strategy, the Literature, Publishing and Translation Commission is keen to promote a participatory approach by effectively reaching out to recipients, writers, publishers, translators, investors and non-profit institutions.

This is besides building strategic partnerships with other government sectors, achieving the highest levels of financial sustainability and operational competency, attracting capabilities and high productivity, and providing opportunities for the society to contribute to cultural work.

The strategy’s vision for the Literature, Publishing and Translation Commission is to achieve a “renewable literary wealth, an advanced publishing industry, and a professional translation activity.”

Its mission, on the other hand, is to create “an enabling environment for pioneering Saudi literature to stimulate writers’ creativity, enhance product quality and recipient experience.

“It also seeks to advance the publishing industry in the Kingdom to achieve attractiveness and competitiveness of global investment, develop the quality and quantity of translation works, enrich Arabic content, and rely on effective partnerships, qualified competencies and innovative technologies to establish sustainable institutional work.”

The Literature, Publishing and Translation Commission was established in February 2020 as one of 11 cultural commissions launched by the Ministry of Culture, in line with its plan to advance the local cultural sector by developing main cultural sectors, to assume responsibility for managing the literature, publishing and translation sectors in the Kingdom. — SPA