The Banking Executive Magazine - July 2023 Issue

World Databases INTRODUCTION This article highlights the importance of developing more Arab databases produced by Arab authorities and data centres in Arab countries. More- over, there is a need for more domain specific databases that can help in promoting and accelerating invest- ment, trade, and project finance in the Arab world. Data about Arab countries is usually accessible from world databases such as World Bank Open Data, United Nation UN data portals, World Health Organization (WHO) database, Worldometer, World Eco- nomic Outlook, and Central Intelli- gence Agency (CIA) World Factbook. This article overviews world data- bases and domain specific data bases such as databases for investors and investment projects. A brief overview of databases developed in the Arab world is presented with particular focus on data available from Union of Arab Banks E-Services platform. The article concludes with the im- portance of supporting initiatives to develop domain specific databases to fill the gap in the availability of Arab world data and help enterprises of various sizes, particularly small and medium size enterprises (SMEs), to easily find data about future inno- vation projects and finance opportu- nity and facilitating the matching between them. THE IMPORTANCE OF WORLD DATABASES World databases serve the important purpose of collecting, organizing, and providing access to vast amounts of information about various aspects of the world. These databases are typically created and maintained by organizations, governments, or com- panies with the aim of facilitating re- search, analysis, decision-making, and information dissemination. The content of world databases can vary widely depending on their specific focus, but some common types of data include: • Demographic Data: Information about populations, such as population size, age distri- bution, ethnicity, education levels, and socioeconomic indicators. • Geographic Data: Spatial information, including maps, coordinates, boundaries, and features of different locations, such as countries, cities, rivers, mountains, and landmarks. • Economic Data: Data related to the global econ- omy, including indicators like gross domestic product (GDP), inflation rates, employment statistics, trade flows, and market trends. • Environmental Data: Information about the environ- ment, such as climate patterns, weather data, air and water quality, biodiversity, natural resources, and ecological trends. • Health Data: Data related to public health, in- cluding disease prevalence, vacci- nation rates, mortality rates, healthcare infrastructure, and epi- demiological studies. • Scientific Data: Research findings, experimental re- sults, observations, and measure- ments in various scientific fields, such as astronomy, physics, chem- istry, biology, and earth sciences. • Cultural Data: Information about cultural her- itage, traditions, languages, art, lit- erature, music, and historical events. • Legal and Regulatory Data: Databases containing laws, regula- tions, treaties, court cases, intellec- tual property rights, and legal frameworks in different jurisdic- tions. • Social Data: Information about social trends, behaviour patterns, social media analytics, public opinion polls, and surveys. • Educational Data: Databases containing educational resources, learning materials, aca- demic research, and statistics on educational institutions, and achievements. These databases serve as valuable re- sources for researchers, policymak- ers, businesses, educators, journalists, and the general public, enabling them to access and analyze information to gain insights, make in- formed decisions, and deepen their understanding of various aspects of the world. WHERE IS THE GLOBAL DATA? Global data is available from the fol- lowing organizations: • World Bank: The World Bank provides an ex- tensive collection of open data covering a wide range of topics, in- cluding demographics, economics, education, health, environment, and more. It offers access to a vast amount of information and indica- tors from countries around the world. • United Nations (UN): The United Nations maintains var- ious databases that offer insights into global development, social is- sues, and other topics. The UN Data portal provides access to datasets from different UN agen- cies, covering areas such as popu- lation, education, health, employment, energy, and more. • World Health Organization (WHO): The WHO gathers data on global health issues and maintains a com- prehensive database with informa- tion on diseases, health indicators, health systems, and other related topics. It provides statistics, reports, and resources for researchers, pol- icymakers, and the public. ISSUE 175 JULY 2023 the BANKING EXECUTIVE 29