The report refers to the issue of translation as a way of interacting between civilizations through the transfer from one language into another for the purpose of achieving scientific and cultural objectives. The report complains that Arab countries have not learned from the lessons of the past and "the field of translation remains chaotic." The number of translations remains small; in the first half of the 1980s the average number of books translated per 1 million people in the Arab world during a 5-year period was 4.4 while in Hungary it was 519 and in Spain 920. The number for Israel is approximately 380.