Abu Dhabi congress puts Arabic's screen and page future in focus
Arabic took centre stage in Abu Dhabi on 20 September, as actors, writers, policymakers and technology leaders gathered at Manarat Al Saadiyat to debate how the language lives on screen, on stage and on the page.
The meeting was the Congress of Arabic and Creative Industries, also known as Congress ACI. It was organised by the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre, the public body that supports Arabic publishing and research, according to Publishing Perspectives.
Egyptian actor and writer Ahmed Amin hosted the congress. He told the audience that Arabic is shared by some 450 million speakers, framing the discussion as one about a global audience rather than a single market.
The opening conversation paired Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, chairman of Abu Dhabi's Department of Culture and Tourism, with Ali Bin Tamim, chairman of the Arabic Language Centre. Al Mubarak said consumption of Arabic by young Arabs should move closer to a 50-50 balance with English and other languages. The message was balance. Not less English, but more Arabic.
Bin Tamim pointed to books as part of that push. He said the centre's partnership with Amazon on the Digital Arabic Library, an online collection of Arabic titles, has digitised 42,000 books. Digitisation here means scanning printed books and making them readable and searchable online.
For fans, this means the congress was not a book fair. The focus was Arabic's place across the creative industries as a whole, with audiovisual media prominent. Film, television, gaming and online video sat alongside publishing in the programme, rather than after it.
What makes this stand out is the framing. The fifth edition was presented under the theme "Arabic as Infrastructure", the idea that language is a working system that needs funding, technology and skills, much like roads or broadband. Ahead of the event, organisers said it would bring together policymakers, investors, technology leaders, academics and creators to explore Arabic's cultural and economic role in the digital age. The programme was unveiled in Abu Dhabi on 2 September.
The 2026 gathering was scheduled for 20 and 21 September at Manarat Al Saadiyat, the arts and culture venue on Saadiyat Island. That followed the 2025 edition, held on 14 and 15 September at Etihad Arena under the theme Arabic Creativity Reimagined: Innovation in Storytelling.
