A NEW EDITION of the most comprehensive book-form business directory of the Arab countries has been published by Graham & Whiteside'. For nearly 7,400 of the largest businesses operating anywhere between Mauritania and Oman (including Sudan and Somalia) as full information as possible is given about contact details, activities, board members
and senior executives, legal and financial data, business links, workforce size and so on. It is very obvious that a great deal of effort has been made to obtain the information presented directly from the companies themselves; as usual many have been selective about what they have sent.

As usual also in this long-running regional series - this is the 31st edition and most other regions of the world are covered - a particularly useful section is the multiple indexes, which allow users to find the main companies in each country operating within a particular field, on the basis of the US Standard IndustrialClassification (which is itself explained). There is a comprehensive all-country A-Z index, too. We
are pleased to see that the usual abbreviations by which companies are commonly known are included in this.

For most of the 20-plus countries listed there are individual national business directories that actually include more entries, from both private publishers and individual chambers of commerce, using information collected by a variety of means, However nowhere else have we found such a comprehensive and consistent (in terms of quality and content) hardback directory across all sectors and countries in the MENA region.

For this reason it is usually the first source we refer to when checking some basic data or contact for Technical or Oil Review; we know from experience it is more likely to come up with the answer than any other single source.

In line with the long-term trend in directory publishing the number of electronic contact
details given increases every year. A quick check suggested that well over three-quarters of the businesses listed in this 2008 edition have provided either website or e-mail details, or both - significantly more than this in some countries.

This is a very welcome trend. Some argue that in an era of excellent search
engines and electronic communication there is no need for hard-copy publications like this; on the contrary this example shows that the best research procedure is nearly always to get the basic data from a reliable source like this and then use electronic means to fill out the many extra details that can usually be obtained online.

Also welcome is that it is clearly stated that all entries have been published free of charge, the selection being the publisher's own on the basis of the known facts about the companies concerned.

This completely updated book will be used by business executives, investment analysts, government officials and general researchers to find potential suppliers, customers, trading and other partners in the world's most dynamic business region. It will be just as useful inside MENA as it is outside the Arabic-speaking world.

This directory provides information on more than 7,400 of the largest companies in Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Algeria, Bahrain, Dubai, Egypt, Fujairah, Gaza/West Bank, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Ras Al Kaimah, Saudi Arabia, Sharjah, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Um Al Quwain and Yemen. Also included are the names of more than 38,000 senior executives. For each company, you'll find contact data, a description of business activities, financial information for the last two years and more. Three indexes facilitate research.