Int@j announces 2007 IT industry statistics

The event was attended by a large number of leading figures in the ICT sector and main partners, most notably, HE Eng. Bassem Al Roussan, the Minister of ICT and HE Dr. Ahmad Hyassat, Chairman of the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC), where the IT industry numbers were presented showing total revenue of $882,970,754 including $686,063,063 as domestic revenue and $196,907,691 as exports.

Domestic revenue indicated a growth of approximately 19% compared with 2006 numbers, and export revenue growth of 3% compared with 2006 numbers. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) increased by $3mn in 2007 and cumulative FDI reached $109,665,208, whereas employment increased to 11,034 with 8,313 technical employees, 1,740 marketing and sales, 1,004 in management, and 1,466 as administration. The numbers also indicate that the industry is employing 8,313 males and 2,721 females in its work force, a 75/25% spilt.

The industry numbers have been compiled through int@j's annual industry survey conducted in cooperation with MoICT and DOS. The sample was based on int@j's eligible IT members were 89 companies out of the 90 filled out the yearly questionnaire. The numbers from int@j members have been raised to project the industry totals based on the assumption that int@j's members represent around 55% of the industry (taking into consideration DOS enterprises survey conducted in 2006, which identified around 120 IT companies outside int@j, in addition to 60 X-members as well as 40 telecom companies licensed by the TRC). The total industry numbers carry an error margin of +-10%.

Figures for the telecommunications sector primarily from the four major operators have not been included in the industry statistics nor in the survey, as they are compiled and reported annually by the TRC. According to the TRC website, it is estimated that 2007 telecom figures have crossed the $1.1bn figure bringing the total ICT industry revenue figures to over $2bn.

Additionally, the total industry numbers reflect approximately 48% value added services in domestic revenue and approximately 86% value added services in exports, demonstrating that the IT industry brings high value to the Jordanian economy especially in exports.

The numbers also indicated that IT exports are largely focused on the region with 20% going to Saudi Arabia, 11% to the West Bank, 11% to the USA, 9% to the UAE, 5% to Iraq, 5% to Bahrain, 4% to Syria, and 3% to Sudan and Qatar respectively, while the rest of exports are directed to other regional countries. This encourages IT companies to focus more on regional countries and Africa as potential markets for the IT industry.

In his speech, Chairman of int@j, Marwan Juma, indicated that int@j is working with the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology, Ministry of Industry and Trade, Jordan Chamber of Industry, Amman Chamber of Commerce, and Department of Statistics to establish an ICT industry classification system to capture the true size of the ICT industry and define what it includes. Juma added that int@j is also working with the Social Security Corporation (SSC) to analyze the total graduates of Jordanian universities from year 2000 to 2008 to better understand the demographics of our graduates, where they work, and how we are utilizing our talents.

Adding and commenting on the industry numbers presented by the Chairman, HE Eng. Bassem Al-Roussan further stressed on the importance of strengthening the partnership and the cooperation between the private and public sectors to boost the industry growth and development. HE also highlighted some of the main initiatives being planned by the ministry to be implemented in cooperation with the private sector, most notably the 'Internship Program Initiative' that aims at building ICT graduates capacity to fit the ICT Industry needs.

In continuation to HE the ICT Minister comments, int@j's Chairman further highlighted other major issues affecting the sector's growth, among which are mainly the need to improve the business and investment climate, resolve the ambiguity on the recently approved services export tax exemption, and reassessing the overall ICT industry taxes affecting the cost of doing business in the sector.