TAG RC and Talal Abu-Ghazaleh's ICT Dictionary officially launched

The launching was under the patronage of HE Eng. Basem Rousan, Minister of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and Mr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, chairman of the UN Global Alliance of ICT and Development, at Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Business Forum.

In his opening remarks, the Minister highlighted the private sector's contribution in achieving sustainable development "this is due to the Jordanian economic policies based on empowering the ICT sector and providing the necessary means to enhance the sector's competitiveness on the regional and international levels," Rousan said.

"The TAG RC project and Talal Abu-Ghazaleh's ICT dictionary are the best examples of cooperation between the Ministry and the private sector," he added.

In addition, Rousan underscored the vision of His Majesty King Abdullah II stating that "technology is of a great significance in his Majesty's agenda since it is one of the major driving forces to achieve sustainable economic development."

Meanwhile, Mr. Abu-Ghazaleh, chairman & CEO of Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organization (TAG-Org), commended the Ministry's ongoing achievements in the ICT sector pointing out that Internet penetration in the Kingdom has reached 26% and 22,000 job opportunities have been created in the ICT field adding $2bn to the national income.

"In my capacity as GAID Chairman, I would like to also praise His Excellency's plans to achieve a 50% Internet penetration creating 35,000 job opportunities by the end of 2011 in a strategy that incorporates the whole country and not limited to the cities only,"

he added.

In respect of TAG RC project, Mr. Abu-Ghazaleh explained that it aims at activating and utilizing old computers for educational purposes.

"TAG RC project is the outcome of the vision of Ban Ki-moon, UN General Secretary to launch the Refurbished Computers project globally and Jordan was one of the first countries where this initiative has been materialized," he explained.

The event also witnessed the signing of Talal Abu-Ghazaleh ICT Dictionary which is one of TAG-Org's initiatives that aims at standardizing and unifying the IT language and enriching the Arabic language with the necessary terminologies.

On the sideline of the ceremony, Mr. Mutasem Assaf received Adel Al Sa'di Award for outstanding performance in the Arab Certified Public Accountant (ACPA) examination conducted by the Arab Society of Certified Accountants. Al Sa'di was one of the pioneering founders of the Society.

Attending the event were high-ranking officials, diplomats and government representatives in addition to a number of the concerned parties.

At the end of the ceremony, Mr. Abu-Ghazaleh handed over a signed copy of the TAG ICT Dictionary.