Jordan vies to become regional ICT hub

int@j further estimates the national ICT industry will grow by a substantial 25 per cent in 2007, in line with the Jordanian government's vision of establishing the Kingdom as a regional ICT hub.

"Jordan offers all the right ingredients for a successful and vibrant outsourcing industry, with a robust technology infrastructure and an educated and capable workforce, at competitive cost," said Nidal Qanadilo, Director of ICT Investment and Promotion, Ministry of Information and Communications Technologies.

"We have an ambitious policy in place to position Jordan as the ICT and outsourcing hub of the region - this follows the establishment in 2005 of our dedicated call centre initiative under His Majesty's directive and the newly unveiled ICT 2007 - 2011 national strategy. We have also recently renewed a strategic partnership with Microsoft to 2009, which will further boost the country's ICT ambitions."

According to int@j's research, the communications sector provided the lion's share of earnings for Jordan in 2006, over $1bn, and witnessed a respectable growth rate of 7.8 per cent. However IT recorded the most impressive increase, 32.6 per cent, with income rising above $770m.

int@j is in strategic partnership with MoICT to assist in the promotion and development of Jordan as a regional software development hub and services attribution gate. A delegation recently visited GITEX - the largest ICT trade show in the Middle East - to showcase Jordan's unique industry strengths.

"We're keen to support the future expansion of ICT revenues for Jordan, and GITEX was an important platform for us to market our consultancy and software capabilities," said Sabri Tabbaa, CEO of int@j.

"Our pavilion at GITEX showcased ten Jordanian companies, including KETAB Technologies which recently achieved first place in a contest held by Jordan's technology incubator, iPark."

The int@j pavilion at GITEX 2007 included the following Jordanian companies:-

- KETAB Technologies - named one of the five most promising high technology startup companies according to the Arab Science and Technology Foundation (ASTF), the Arab Business Challenge and the MIT business plan competition.

- CrysTelCall - the first Jordanian independent multilingual call centre.

- Rubicon - Jordan's pioneer in interactive multimedia, 2D & 3D animation, whose creative and technical competencies have allowed its work international acclaim.

- Globitel - providing innovative solutions to telecommunication service providers

- Generic - a leader in high-performance IT services and solutions, delivering a complete range of extremely efficient application and multimedia development solutions.

- Fourth Dimension Systems - a leading IT Solutions provider in the Middle East

- TAKAMALL - a global provider of Management, Software & Internet Solutions.

- Digital Document Solutions - specialising in delivering IT Solutions covering Knowledge Management, workflow, and Business Process Management.

- MENAITECH - the first software company in the Arab region to specialise in the development and distribution of Human Resources Solutions

- Sanaya ME - specialising in staffing solutions, corporate training and business consultancy servicing.