Jordan Times
Friday, May 20, 2005
WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM 2005
Supplement and Special Issue
ICT sector positions itself among leading and fastest
growing markets in region
By Rami Abdelrahman
In Mafraq, a small city located in the northern-eastern desert plains, the new trend among secondary school students is network gaming and Internet chatting.
A few years ago, Internet cafes in this city of
little resources were only used by nearby Al al Bayt and Hashemite universities'
students, but now school students are queuing up for the computers.
Ten years ago, there were hardly any Internet cafes in Mafraq as in the rest of
Jordan, and computers were only a luxury for well-to-do citizens.
Mafraq now is witnessing a computer boom like in most other Jordanian cities,
and some villages. This advancement is allowing more Jordanians of different
backgrounds and ages to communicate with the world.
Another case, from the vast southern desert, in Wadi Rum, one of Jordan's most
attractive tourism locations, visitors and local residents can log on the
Internet at ADSL speed.
This digital growth is only recent, but is promising that the Kingdom's drive
for the development of its human resources, its richest natural resource, could
increase the country's competitiveness to become the sought for information and
communications technology (ICT) hub in the Middle East.
By the end of May 2005, almost 90 per cent of Jordanian schools will be equipped
with computer labs, and connected through a nationwide network with the Ministry
of Education, said Minister Khalid Touqan, a Michigan Institute of Technology
(MIT) nuclear engineer.
Now, according to official figures, 93 per cent of the population has access to
telecommunication tools whether through fixed or mobile lines. During the last
five years, Internet prices went down by at least 50 per cent, whereas mobile
and land phone charges were reduced by about the same percentage.
In Amman, communication with the world is not only on the individual level, but
also on the government and corporate levels.
A delegation of eight local IT companies arrived on April 4 from an eight-day
trade mission to the United States, organised by the Information Technology
Association (int@j).
The delegates visited Yahoo's central headquarters in San Francisco, where they
held a meeting with co-founder and Chief Executive Officer David Filo. Later,
they were briefed on Capitol Hill by senior Senate staff on technology issues,
before a meeting with officials of the Science Applications International
Corporation (SAIC) — a company that has already established a presence in
Jordan.
During their visit, the delegates held intensive one-on-one meetings with US
companies, and were presented with vast conducive networking opportunities.
“I believe that the most important aspect of this trip was to find out what
Jordan and Jordanian companies need to do in order to position ourselves as
credible outsourcing providers for both IT and business processes,” said Ala
Saket, market development manager of BOSS-it. “From the meetings, we gained
insight into what companies in the United States are looking for, which will
enable companies to focus more on providing the right kinds of services.”
“Our trip was exploratory, we are negotiating joint projects with US companies,”
said Sameer Mubarak, who represented both Telaterra and PaymentCentric — two
Jordanian IT companies.
int@j is planning several more trade missions for this year to the Far East, the
Arab Gulf and Europe.
“We believe in the necessity of follow-up,” said Mubarak.
On the home front, the association joined forces this spring with the Ministry
of Information and Communications Technology, Jordan Telecom, Intel as well as
local banks and computer retail stores in launching the “PC for Every Home”
programme.
The programme offers up-to-date computers with ADSL and dial-up packages at
prices starting from JD20 monthly (approximately $28) to increase Internet
penetration. At present, Internet is available only to two per cent of the
country's 5.55 million people.
Under liberalised policies, telecommunications and information technology
companies are finding more business opportunities through cooperation in
expanding the local market, and increasing exports to the region, and the world.
A survey targetting 95 int@j member companies, and saw that “over the last few
years, the ICT sector in Jordan has succeeded in positioning itself among the
leading and fastest growing markets in the region; the results of our exports
are further proof on the capabilities of this dynamic sector in sharing its
expertise and solutions with regional and international markets.”
The country has been witnessing an annual 30 per cent growth in IT revenues,
according to a survey conducted by int@j ahead of last year's ICT Forum in the
Dead Sea.
Today, the number of ICT companies, excluding retail stores, has grown to about
400 companies, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
The int@j survey results showed that the total number of persons employed by the
95 member IT companies reached more than 3,500 last year. The job categories
were as follows: 57 per cent technical, 16 per cent marketing and sales, 17 per
cent administrative and 10 per cent management.
The number of those employed at the four telecommunications companies in Jordan
hit 5,055 persons, according to the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission.
The total revenues of the Kingdom's ICT sector have exceeded $300 million last
year.
However, the numbers are expected to grow, if not double in 2005, as the
telecommunications market became fully liberalised on Jan. 1, and has so far
seen many local and international companies queuing for licences to offer
services ranging from fixed-lines to Voice Over Internet Protocol, to wireless
services.
Overall, these are just small proofs, of why IT giants such as Microsoft and
Cisco, to name but a few, are investing millions in the computerisation of the
Jordanian education system, as students in Mafraq, Wadi Rum, Amman or any other
area are now becoming able to lead the Kingdom into becoming the sought-for ICT
hub of the Middle East.