Jordan Times
Monday, April 25, 2005
Kingdom urged to make
transition to e-commerce
Internet use in the Middle East is expected to triple in the next
three years
By Melanie Jacobson
AMMAN — Jordan should take advantage of the
opportunities offered by electronic commerce in order to narrow the gap with
developed economies, said a speaker at a two-day conference that concluded
yesterday.
The “E-Commerce Conference: Strategies & Policies” provided attendees with the
specific knowledge and capabilities needed to participate successfully in the
electronic economy.
Intellectual assets and knowledge now exceed physical capital in value,
according to Lucinda Jones, a senior legal officer with the World Intellectual
Property Organisation (WIPO) and speaker at the conference.
Jones noted that “uncertainty and a lack of awareness and technical skills” are
preventing equal participation in the information society.
It is crucial for a country like Jordan to “make the transition to an e-economy
so as to narrow the gap between it and developed economies,” Jones said, warning
that “not to make that leap would be fatal.”
The conference, which featured American legal experts and Jordanian business
leaders, addressed a wide range of overlapping e-commerce, IT, and intellectual
property issues.
Tawfiq Al Tabaa, board member of the Jordan Intellectual Property Association (JIPA),
which organised the conference, told The Jordan Times the gathering aimed to
highlight e-commerce success stories for Jordanian and regional companies to
emulate, such as Tejari, the eBay of the Middle East based in Dubai with over
60,000 catalogued items from more than 1,000 suppliers.
Tejari Jordan General Manager Yazan Hatamleh encouraged businesses to stake
online territory and capitalise on global online trade, expected to reach $12.8
trillion by 2008.
Expansion of e-commerce is set to take off in the Arab world where Internet
users are expected to triple in the next three years, according to Khaldoun
Tabaza, a board member of the Arab Private Equity Union.
E-banking, a leading e-commerce sector and a key topic at the conference, was
lauded as a “win-win-win” business by Naser M. Khraishi, assistant general
manager of IT for the Jordan-Kuwait Bank. Customers, banks, and the overall
economy all benefit when banking moves online, he said.
Khraishi admitted that jobs would be lost as the sector goes online, but
remained convinced that the move would be beneficial in the long run. Companies
that provide infrastructure for e-banking such as SMS services and centralised
check clearing could sell their services throughout the region and in the global
market, he told The Jordan Times.
Eric Garduo, project manager for the International Intellectual Property
Institute, told the audience that “efficiency is the absolute benchmark for
international competitiveness,” so the expected job loss would be only
temporary. “E-commerce,” he asserted, “will produce more business for companies
and, in turn, will provide more jobs.”
He reviewed the factors which enabled e-commerce to succeed in the US, including
widespread and affordable Internet accesss and significant market penetration of
sophisticated personal computers.
While Jordan's PC penetration is still low and Internet relatively expensive,
the situation is improving, Gardu?o said, and Internet cafes are widely used.
Moreover, financial institutions like the Jordan Commercial Bank offer SMS
banking services, an accessible venue in Jordan, where mobile phone penetration
is high.
The conference was held under the patronage of HRH Prince Ali Ben Al Hussein
with funding from USAID and support from the WIPO.