Jordan Times
Monday, July 19, 2004
Digital network to connect
governorates to ministries
By Rami Abdelrahman
AMMAN — The Ministry of Interior signed an agreement with Jordan Telecom (JT) on
Sunday to connect 14 governmental departments through a digital network.
The network, costing JD9,800, with monthly running costs of JD4,000, will
connect the governorates' headquarters with the ministries of interior and
planning. The aim is to help automate governmental services, follow up on
development projects, and compose a data bank on governorates' information.
Minister of Interior Samir Habashneh told reporters the agreement would “help
strengthen decentralisation in the Kingdom,” and enable governorates to
undertake developmental projects on their own, whilst submitting information to
Amman.
He pointed out that this initiative is an important step towards implementing
the government's plan to introduce e-government in a country that is considered
8th in the world in ICT promotion, according to the World Economic Forum's
Global Competitiveness Report.
Jordan Telecom Chairman Shabib Ammari told the press at a monthly meeting
yesterday that the agreement would last for one year, and that both parties have
already started establishing the network's connections.
Also during the meeting, Jordan Telecom CEO Laurent Mialet announced that JT
would start providing Call Centre services to help achieve the Kingdom's vision
of becoming a regional telecommunications centre.
The new centre will provide government departments and current and potential
businesses with JT multilingual employees who will answer all inquiries and
provide the requested information.
JT said prices for the new service would be “attractive to investors,” but did
not elaborate.