Jordan Times
Thursday, January 29, 2004
int@j promises concrete plans to develop e-learning, attract investors
By Jumana Bississo
AMMAN — Chairman of the Information Technology Association of Jordan (Int@j) Marwan Juma Wednesday affirmed the top two goals of the Kingdom's IT sector: To develop e-learning and transform Jordan into an economic hub for local IT companies.Back from Davos, where int@j attended the four-day meetings of the World Economic Forum (WEF), Juma stressed that Jordan has the potential to turn into a regional and international success in the IT sector.
“We have invested heavily in e-learning and educational reform, and leading local companies show they harness the capabilities to meet worldwide standards in terms of applications and software,” Juma told a press conference.
An example is the the Jordan Education Initiative (JEI) which developed at WEF as a pilot project, equipping 100 “discovery schools” across the Kingdom with an e-learning system, accelerating social and economic development.
The public-private partnership between members of the WEF and the government aims to “transform public education through technology in 100 public schools... through the broad application of e-learning hardware, curricula and training,” read a JEI statement on the WEF website.
The pilot project will begin with the e-maths programme developed by the joint venture of Rubicon and the Cisco Learning Institute, and is slated to be initially set up in 10 discovery schools around the country by June 2004 and expand to the remaining 90 by September 2004, according to Rubicon CEO Randa Ayoubi.
“The programme will be available for students from grade one through 12. With more than 6,000 online activities it promotes students to self-learn, and teachers to log on to develop lesson plans,” explained Ayoubi.
The programme also provides level assessments to ensure students are working at the appropriate maths level and not at one more advanced than their capabilities, she added.
With the launch of this new initiative, and focus placed on Jordan at the WEF, the local IT sector is hoping to attract more foreign investors.
“We need to bring in more large international IT companies as anchor tenants, to prove that we are on the right path,” said Juma.
Although “Cisco showed further interest in Jordan by investing $100 million in equity... we need further government involvement to provide incentives for international names to set up shop,” he added.
“We have the human resources and political stability to make Jordan an attractive destination for international players to invest in,” explained Juma.
“The idea is to build momentum so by mid-May at the Dead Sea Economic Forum we'll have come up with more concrete plans to develop e-learning and turn Jordan into an economic hub for companies,” said Juma.
The country has proven to possess the manpower and investment capabilities required to further develop the IT industry, as IT employment at private sector companies has increased from 2,000 in 1999 to 10,000 in 2003 and investment in the Kingdom has reached $68 million accumulatively in 2002
With 18,000 fresh graduates entering the workforce in the coming years, “focus must be placed on the quality of our graduates and not just on the quantity... our human resource will be our competitive advantage,” said Juma.