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." |