By Jumana Heresh
AMMAN — Jordan's private and public sectors are gradually integrating electronic or “e”-strategies, said officials and businesspeople at the first day of an e-commerce conference on Tuesday.
The two-day conference is part of the Electronic Business Development Activity (EBDA) initiative to increase awareness on e-commerce and e-business.
It opened on Tuesday under the patronage of His Majesty King Abdullah with the support of the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (ICT).
Funded by the EU and executed by the Amman Chamber of Industry (ACI), EBDA conducts training courses on how to incorporate the Internet and e-concepts into businesses and government. About 2,500 trainees have benefited from the programme.
One trainer, who has trained more than 200 people, said that participants came mostly “from the private sector, including the banking, industrial and IT sectors,” said Charles Shaban, IT manager at Talal Abu-Ghazaleh and Co. International.
As e-commerce is a global trend, the businesses that choose not to follow suit will lose out in the near future, he added.
“The trainees are now convinced that institutional changes necessary to accommodate e-commerce are the way forward to increase efficiency and profits,” he added.
The EBDA conference includes a series of presentations by entrepreneurs who have succeeded in implementing e-commerce strategies, said Othman Bdeir, ACI chairman.
A separate room also features booths of local businesses to network and showcase the results of their e-strategies.