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CONTENTS

• Dr. Nusseir, NIC President, gives a lecture at Shoman, 5/6/2000
• Activities of the Centre
• IT Activities in Jordan
• New Databases
• New Services on the Internet in Jordan

In an address on the domestic IT sector at the Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation, NIC president, Dr.Yousef Nusseir pointed out that the IT sector craves creative workforce and timely training. He said that Jordan needs more creative information technology experts and better training to keep up with the rapid development in the IT sector worldwide. He also stressed the need for a national strategy in the field based on the private sector. He pointed out that creating a competitive software programming sector would attract investments worth $150 million, increase job opportunities by 30,000 and expand software exports to reach $550 million by 2004.

He described the current state of affairs as still inadequate since several kinds of qualifications demanded by IT employers were still difficult to obtain locally because of present training standards. Although about 2,300 university and community college graduates enter the job market every year, up to one third of them emigrate to countries all over the world. He said that more than 2,600,000 computer and IT experts are lacking worldwide, 650,000 alone in Europe, 250,000 in the US and about 50,000 in India. Dr. Nusseir added that 190 countries have access to the Internet with the number of subscribers reaching 45 million, and the number of users lapping 250 million. At the end of 2001, the number of users is expected to increase to 500 million.

Jordan’s total number of Internet users has reached 95,000, while the number of subscribers has not exceeded 35,000.

“A lot of people still can’t afford the new technologies, the Internet, although a very important tool for development, it can also be regarded as a tool that is increasing the gap between the rich and the poor,” Dr. Nusseir said.

0. The Centre participated in an ESCWA meeting that was held in Beirut in June concerning digital economics and its implications on global and regional developments and the challenges that need to be addressed. The experts discussed the imperatives of drawing a broad plan to develop the Arab information society and the IT infrastructure in the region as a whole.
1. The Centre conducted a survey on IT equipment that is available in the public sector in an attempt to upgrade the IT infrastructure for the government. The education sector was given special attention. A statistical study was produced concerning the number of computers available in secondary schools and the budgetary requirement needed to introduce IT courses in high schools by the year 2001.
2. The Centre distributed computers to the ten organizations who participated in the Sustainable Development Network Project that was supported by UNDP. The computers will be used by the organizations to computerize their activities and data and make it available to users through a special network.
3. Dr. Yousef Nusseir, the president of NIC gave a lecture about the National Information System in the Emirate Centre for Strategic Studies. The lecture was given on 9 May, 2000 and it will be soon documented and published by the Emirate Centre.
4. The President of the Centre participated in the quarterly meeting of the EUMEDIS for focal points in Brussels from 21-24/6/2000.
5. As a focal point for the EUMEDIS, the National Information Centre conducted a two-day workshop for participants of an IT project from 26-27/6/2000. Organizations who submitted the projects presented and discussed their individual projects in the aim of securing funding from the EUMEDIS funds. Conditions for funding include several items with stress on sustainability and coordination with more than one country in the Mediterranean region.

The Jordanian government and the World Bank are jointly working on a plan to reform the public sector. Because the public sector accounts for 40% of GDP and 40% of employment it needs restructuring to deliver a better output. The introduction of a state of the art IT systems would help in accelerating a positive change. So, special attention should be given to the IT sector and information needs should be determined to upgrade the whole system. Upgrading and restructuring would inevitably help in delivering public services more efficiently. Also, the role of up-to-date IT software, hardware and human power cannot be undermined in the management of the economy and in its contribution positively to the development process.

One of the task forces of the Economic Consultative Council is the IT task force headed by Mr. Karim Kawar. Its main responsibility is to develop the full potential of the nascent IT sector as a strategic engine for economic growth and as outlined at the Dead Sea First National Economic Forum that took place in November. E-government was given special attention in the Forum. The use of IT would allow administration of the public sector to be more efficient. Availability of information to citizens should have a positive output on the development process.

Selling and buying shares in the American Stock Exchange Market in Jordan is flourishing since more people are getting connected to the Internet. Licensed offices are mushrooming and more people are attracted to this risky investment everyday. Economist advice the interference of the Central Bank to regulate procedures and protect investors from electronic embezzlement.

The Ministry of Tourism has finalized a plan to upgrade its computer equipment and network information content It will upgrade training for its staff to deliver a better information system that will help attract more tourists to Jordan. Tourism in Jordan is considered a gold mine that should be utilized in such a way that it brings about dividends and return on investment. The network will include useful information for the tourist, like lists of hotels and restaurants and statistical information to be used by investors and decision-makers.

Very soon, the Directorate of Industrial Development in the Ministry of Industry and Trade will go electronic. The project, which will take 12 months to execute, will create an Intranet and Internet in the Ministry. Citizens will be able to complain and inquire about specific services and later on submit an electronic form to perform a government transaction. The

Intranet will help the inter-operations within the Ministry and with other ministries to become paperless.

The number of Jordanian computers bitten by the “ I Love You” bug was minimal compared to the havoc that this computer virus wreaked across the globe. Several Internet cafés temporarily closed their doors to customers after they logged off the web as the virus crippled their servers. The impact of the virus was lessened because the virus struck during the weekend when most of the companies were closed. This virus is carried in an email attachment saying “ I love you”. It deletes text files, photos and music files from the hard drive.

The RSS has just finished a field survey about the welding industry in Jordan. A broad spectrum of information about companies and firms and their output has been gathered to be added to a database about welding. The database, which is hosted by the Mechanical Design and Technology Center, will serve the decision-maker, the researcher and the industrialist.

Jordan and Italy have launched the first initiative for a project on the construction of a database on the causes of past conflicts, means of analysis and effective measurement to be used in crisis management and resolutions employed in modern history. The database will offer a parameter for early warning, past crisis management evaluation and will be used for future crisis-prevention. The database will offer valuable technical support to decision-makers. The protocol was signed between The Jordan Institute of Diplomacy and Italian International Affairs Institute.

The University of Al-Hussein Bin Talal is in the process of establishing a comprehensive and integrated data base for Ma’an. The database will include a myriad combination of information on 60 different

socio-economic indicators, sustainable development, population, diseases, unemployment, employment opportunities, agriculture and the family. The database will also include research and studies pertaining to the area.

The Arab Bank has recently launched Internet Online Banking service to its customers in Jordan. The service will enable customers to access their accounts directly and perform

transactions over the web. Advanced technology and secure e-banking solutions are utilized to achieve the highest degree of security and privacy.

Local and foreign investors seeking information about investment opportunities in Jordan can soon contact the site at http://www.jordaninvest.com of the Jordan Investment Promotion Corporation to check on the investment environment. Applications for investment will be submitted on-line to save the investors time and effort. The site will be translated in several languages. The service will be publicized during the Hannover Expo2000.

Aramex has launched a “shop ‘n ship” service to ease Internet business-to-consumer (B2C) shopping across the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent. The service will enable the customer to get a mailing address in North America through the office of Aramex in New York. Every Internet purchase made by the customer will be delivered as a domestic order to Aramex New York to be forwarded through the Aramex express network. The service is available at an annual subscription fee of $75 and it will streamline order-delivery process and reduce costs.

A US company is promoting a novel Internet service that will provide non-English speaking users access to domain names in their own languages. World Access Liaison International Domains (WALID) company provides international domain name registration services. It expects to register domain names through the use of WALID in 76 languages to non-English speaking on-line users by year’s end. So far, Arabic, Japanese and Chinese have been registered. International domain names would serve around 5.5 billion people worldwide who do not speak English. The address is at www.walid.com. Downloading can be done free of charge. Chief operator officer of WALID is Walid Tout, an American-Lebanese investor.

Job hunters can look for the right job now through new web sites. Jobconnexion.com has launched a site that provides job hunters and fresh graduates listings in companies seeking to hire graduates of American universities. Careerjordan.com is another site that provides a similar service. Careerjordan is part of careermideast.com. Its database includes profiles of vacancies and companies in the Middle East.

Jormall.com is the first Jordanian site on the Internet that deals with e-commerce. Money transactions can be performed in a secure setting.

The Royal Scientific Society has opened a regional training course in Information Technology. It is a four-month course and is held in cooperation with Japan International Cooperation Agency. The training program includes courses in UNIX, advanced system analysis, relational database management systems, database administration, database design, reliable design, capacity design, project management and networking administration among other subjects.

Coming soon to the British Council in Amman the new computer training course from the University of Cambridge. They will be offering short courses, and will give Cambridge skills Award in Information Technology. Courses are based on Microsoft products and will develop the skills and knowledge needed for:

8. Word processing (MS Word)
9. Using spreadsheets (Excel)
10. Using databases (Access)
11. Using e-mail (Outlook)
12. Using computer presentations (PowerPoint).

Training initiatives that seek to tap Jordan’s human potential emerged at the end of the IT Forum in March 2000. The demand in local and global markets for qualified IT work force is accelerating. According to an agreement between IBM and Jordan, IBM will provide training for teachers, training in Internet surfing. IBM will share in financing this program to effectively satisfy the needs of the market. The aim of training is to qualify and certify fresh Jordanian graduates in information technology. The development of Jordan’s IT sectors could create as many as 30,000 new jobs. Jordanian universities produce only 2,300 new graduates, a figure far way behind the desirable number.

The Faculty of Information Technology at the University of Jordan is to be launched next academic year, 2000/2001. The curricula include three BA programs in computer science, computer information systems and business information systems. Also, a new course in computer engineering integrated with software engineering will be included in the curriculum of the Faculty of Engineering. The allocated budget for the new faculty is around JD2.5 million.

Sun Microsystems will introduce a three-tier information technology-training programme in Jordan. The training programs will be given at the Balqa University. It will focus on e-commerce. Another part of the training program will focus on establishing a permanent training centre in either Princess Sumaya University College for Technology or in the University of Jordan. The third level of training will include the establishment of an incubator for business as announced in the Dead Sea IT Forum.

The National Information Centre has announced its training program for the year 2000. The announcement was distributed among seventy-five organizations in the public sector. The courses are contracted out to IT academics and experts but attendance is free and is restricted to the public sector. Details of the program are on page 9 of this newsletter.