Jordan Times
Monday, September 13, 2004
600 international, regional
participants gear up for ICT Forum
By Rami Abdelrahman
AMMAN — Meetings related to the Jordan ICT Forum start today as 600
international and regional participants are expected to arrive and participate
in the forum's pre-events.
The Ministry of Education is expected to announce the inauguration of the
850-kilometre-long National Broadband Network connecting the Kingdom's eight
public universities, organisers said, while the Ministry of Information and
Communications Technology (MoICT) will be signing an agreement later today with
Cisco Systems. This will be followed by a press conference by ICT Minister Fawaz
Zu'bi and Cisco President and CEO John Chambers.
Organised by the Jordanian private sector, the third Jordan ICT Forum will be
opened tomorrow by His Majesty King Abdullah and focus on the sector from a
regional perspective.
The main sessions include open discussions on regional opportunities, regional
connectivity, regional synergies for a global offering, investment in education,
building a youth dialogue for innovation and the value generation in the Arab
world.
Also, several ICT companies and organisations said they would be announcing new
cooperation agreements, investments and future plans during the forum.
The Information Technology Association- Jordan, int@j, announced yesterday that
the ICT sector in the Kingdom had witnessed an overall 30 per cent growth in
revenues during 2003 with a particular increase in national exports.
“The rise in exports was contributed primarily through a significant increase in
hardware and technology provision services to neighbouring Arab markets,” int@j
Chairman Marwan Juma told the press.
Juma said an int@j survey targeted 95 member companies, of which 68 responded.
The total number of companies in the IT sector are estimated to have grown to
373, according to statistics provided by the Ministry of Industry and Trade
Results of the int@j survey showed that the total number of personnel employed
by the 95 member companies were 3,550 at the end of 2003 (excluding employees
from the Kingdom's four telecommunications companies: Jordan Telecom, Fastlink,
MobileCom and XPress Telecom). The job categories were: 57 per cent technical,
16 per cent marketing and sales, 17 per cent administrative and 10 per cent
management.
The number of staff employed at the four telecommunications companies totalled
4,567, with 45 per cent technical, 40 per cent marketing and sales, 11 per cent
administrative and 4 per cent in management.
According to int@j, the domestic revenues of the Kingdom's ICT sector reached
$226.183 million, recording a growth of 20 per cent compared to 2002. Export
revenues achieved 74 per cent growth compared to 2002, reaching a total of
$69.728 million. The total revenues of the sector stood at $295.910 million
achieving a 30 per cent growth in comparison with 2002, whereas cumulative
investments grew by 17 per cent to $79.656 million.
Export revenues from the IT consulting sector hit $2.820 million (contributing
to 4 per cent of the total revenues), software development revenues reached
$25.829 million, communications and Internet services achieved $4,203 million,
hardware sales and technology provision reached $25.920 million and licensing
revenues reached $10.956 million.
Exports from the country's ICT sector totalled $69.728 million, with $28.059
million to other Arab countries. The sector's exports to the Gulf countries
totalled $26.098 million, $13.053 million to the Americas, $2.323 million to
Europe, $118,000 to Southeast Asia and $77,000 to Africa.
The Jordan ICT Forum is the Kingdom's premier international ICT industry event
held under the patronage of King Abdullah. This year's forum aims at opening a
gateway for the regional ICT industry to reach international markets.
International, regional and local ICT leaders will join forces to explore market
opportunities and outline the future of the ICT market in the region.