Although the outlook on the domestic front of late has seemed bleak, with the threat of both Banking collapses and now the threat of recession; the term ‘worldwide recession’ often bandied about by all sections of the press, may actually be somewhat misleading.

The IMF (International Monetary Fund) has just published in its latest edition of the ‘World Economic Outlook’ which states that world growth is due to fall from 3.9% to a still creditable 3% and that the ‘Developing World’ would grow by 6% rising to perhaps 9% in China.

Now in the current turmoil it is perhaps good to be sceptical, but it seems that Bloomsbury Publishers has voted with its feet (or perhaps some foresight bestowed by the IMF report) and decided to expand into the Middle East in a joint venture with the Qatar Foundation.

This joint venture; Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing will publish books in both Arabic and English for book readers all over the Middle East and will cover Adult and Children’s works of both fiction and non-fiction, including of course, a wide range of Arabic classics.

The project is, however, very much a ‘two way street’ as there will be Head Quarters in both London and Doha, there will be a free interchange of publishing interns between the two offices and the best of Arabic works will also be distributed here in English, thus providing rare access to the general public, of historical and contemporary Arabic literature.

This project covers far more than just publishing, however; additionally, there will also be a sponsorship and mentoring scheme for budding Arabic writers as well as open creative writing programmes based at various educational institutions throughout the Arab world and beyond, in order to cultivate skills in Arabic language and translation worldwide.

Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing is due to publish its first works and commence its educational programs in 2010…we wish the project well.