Sunday,
April 18, 2004
 

 

Cisco Systems to cooperate with ministry in looking for mutual opportunities
By Rami Abdelrahman
 
AMMAN - His Majesty King Abdullah attended at the weekend the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology and the American information technology giant Cisco Systems.

Under the MoU, the ministry and Cisco will work on finding mutual opportunities for future cooperation.

Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers commended His Majesty's efforts to put Jordan on the world IT map.

"We are focusing on Jordan because Jordanians are creative people who want to develop their education system," Chambers indicated stressing that the Jordanian leadership has a strong political will for development.

The MoU was signed at the Cisco's headquarters in the Silicon Valley, where representatives of 17 IT companies met with the King and Information and Communications Technology Minister Fawwaz Zu'bi.

According to Chambers, Hewlet Packard, Sun Microsystems and Accel are among those Silicon Valley companies showing interest to invest in Jordan.

"These companies want to play a role in finding investment opportunities in Jordan, and boosting cooperation to develop Jordan's education and technology sectors," Chambers said according to the Jordan News Agency, Petra. Jordan plans considerable progress in telecommunications with the implementation of state-of-the-art technology, a national digital backbone and international connectivity.

Cisco Systems already has recognised the economic potential of Jordan under the leadership of King Abdullah when the company invested $1 million in a Jordan-based private business that is developing new local technology companies.

"The Internet already is bringing the peoples of the world closer together, enabling them to freely exchange ideas as well as products," said Chambers.

"With the US-Jordan Free Trade Agreement, the US administration and King Abdullah ensure that their countries will receive the full benefit of this technological revolution. King Abdullah and US ex-President Clinton are to be commended for their foresight, " Chambers commented on the FTA signing. Cisco's Networking Academies programme, which teaches people how to build and maintain Internet networking systems, has an expanding presence in the country.

At the World Economic Forum in June 2003, Cisco announced a leadership role in the newly formed Jordan Education Initiative. This initiative aims to improve education within Jordan and establish a successful model for education reform in other developing countries.

Under the patronage of Her Majesty Queen Rania, UNIFEM, Cisco Systems, Cisco Foundation and the Government of Jordan launched "Achieving E-Quality in the ICT Sector," a project aimed at addressing issues of the digital divide.

Working toward enhancing the Jordanian women's skills, knowledge and access to information, the project aims to address the low percentages of women's participation in the ICT sector in Jordan and attempts to mainstream women in the field of technology. Cisco's website quoted King Abdullah as saying "the vision of Jordan is to become a regional IT leader and an internationally recognised exporter of IT products and services exploiting its core human capital advantages. The key to success is the central role of the private sector, which spearheads the sustained entry of the sector into international markets."

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