Call for Adopting a Comprehensive Strategy to Address the Digital Divide in the Arab World

 

 

AMMAN - The First Conference on E-Commerce, organised by the Amman Chamber of Industry (ACI) with the support of the European Commission delegation took place yesterday with joint Arab and European participation in the aim of improving the business environment and encouraging various sectors, most notably the economic one, on using digital technology and practicing e-commerce.

 

Dr. Basem Awadallah, the Minister of Planning, said on behalf of His Majesty King Abdullah II that the Conference is considered a focal point in the national economy's path given that it sheds light on the most important requirements for improving the business environment and enhancing the standard of living pointing to the fact that e-commerce has started to emerge as an effective element of the economic development that Jordan has been witnessing in the past few years.

 

Dr. Awadallah added that the Conference, which was convened for the first time in Jordan, serves the purpose of development and reflects King Abdullah's vision of improving the living standards of citizens by raising an overall opinion to embody the partnership between the public and private sectors, which led to the emergence of numerous joint activities and practices between the two sectors.

 

The Minister noted that the government has provided the suitable circumstances for both the IT and other modern technologies sectors, and that legislation has allowed for the increase in economic activity in those sectors. He added that work is currently now directed towards involving all social and economic sectors in this technology, whereby all schools will be provided with computer systems.

 

The Minister noted that Jordan has already begun taking the necessary steps towards e-commerce and IT development and called for economic factors that can overcome the boundaries that stand in its way through using digital technology in its various types of businesses. This requires developing the business culture in all institutions and individuals. He pointed to the constant increase in trade on the Internet where he expected the value of e-trading to reach one trillion US dollars this year.

On his part, the Chairman of ACI, Othman Bdeir said that the Electronic Business Development Activities (EBDA) initiative, under which this important economic event is sponsored, reflects the vision of His Majesty for developing the business environment, noting that the Conference is a starting point for e-commerce in Jordan. He added that e-commerce is important to all economic sectors whereby the transformations witnessed by the Kingdom in the past few years calls for the business development of various institutions and the expansion of their scope of work so as to not to be confined to certain limits.

The Chairman added that the Conference aims to determine and clarify the importance of applying e-commerce and future programs in addition to its role in offering an opportunity to businessmen and those interested in ICT to meet a number of Arab and foreign specialists in that field who participated in the sessions of the two-day Conference.

Bdeir confirmed the continuity of efforts towards e-commerce usage and its popularisation, considering that modern technology is the sole way to face the challenges imposed by globalization and economic blocs around the world.

He also clarified that the Conference will be looking into numerous issues related to e-commerce, methods of usage and the positive results it would bring in the event of its application.

 

Bdeir added that great efforts were made for the preparation of this Conference and that its importance culminates into being the first of its kind in Jordan, whereby special delegations from several countries were invited to participate in order to reach positive results that can bring professional benefits that focus on practical aspects and real examples in order to succeed in this field.

 

Bdeir noted that the challenge we face today is advancing our economy so that it can reach the level of that of the first world countries in order to be able to provide a higher standard of living to all citizens, adding that e-commerce is an important tool to reach this result.

 

The Head of the EC delegation in Jordan, James Moran, said that e-commerce supports the efforts that aims to strengthen competitiveness and take advantage of opportunities to organize the business environment, adding that the digital revolution is facing many challenges and there is a possibility for increasing the activities related to it through the internet, pointing to the fact that globalization concentrates on the importance of taking advantage of the available global opportunities.

 

He added that transforming business to e-commerce requires the provision of a suitable infrastructure that can secure protection to those who deal with it. He affirmed the European Union's support to initiatives that aim to develop the business environment so as to enable the economic sectors to face the challenges of our times.

 

Moran was quoted as saying: "This event aims to work towards achievement. The interaction of participants is essential in order to come up with new visions given that e-commerce is necessary for the transformation of the Jordanian economy and that it is a supporter of creating a global-level economy, granting Jordan a competitive edge." 

Mr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, Chairman of the Working Group on Human Resources and Capacity Building, an affiliate of the United Nations for Information and Communications Technologies Taskforce (UN ICT TF) said that the EBDA initiative is an example on the mature partnership between the EC and the private sector adding that it is a pilot project that is parallel to other similar initiatives currently under implementation. He added that the initiative is also an important link to the overall global project to overcome the digital divide, pointing that economic and ICT development is a complementary process to the generation of informatics.

 

He added that we all live in the generation of IT where communication is immediate and where we can access huge amounts of information at a comparatively low cost and that the ingredients of the IT generation is knowledge, advanced technology and intellectual property (IP), all of which are basic tools for economic competitiveness.

 

This is why Arab and developing countries suffer from the digital divide, since participation and interaction in the ICT revolution which offers major opportunities to poor and developing countries is still limited and many in our countries are not aware of the available opportunities, he noted. "This is why we are required to intensify our efforts and plans and determine our commitments to fully benefit from technological abilities which if we don’t improve our usage of may lead to the deepening of the digital divide," Abu-Ghazaleh said noting that the concept of digital divide is that of a comprehensive one that formulates a serious and multi-faceted challenge that needs to be overcome. He also added that addressing one aspect of this challenge is not sufficient, where the need calls for adopting a comprehensive strategy that can address all aspects of it.

 

Abu-Ghazaleh pointed to the fact that non-governmental organizations have developed to become a major force in societies and has attained a vital role in developing its infrastructure and advising governments in addition to other tasks. The private sector of course practices an important role as a tool for development and is the most important source for human, financial and technological resources.

 

The EBDA initiative is considered an example on the strong partnership between the EC and ACI and this means a wide participation from the private sector whose ACI members belong to and who is the natural beneficiary of the project.

Abu-Ghazaleh pointed that the Working Group for Human Resources and Capacity Building builds on the idea that development initiatives cannot be updated without taking into consideration ICTs as a basic aspect for the general infrastructure of development. This is considered an important matter as it means that "we can only achieve economic development if we commit ourselves to investments in ICT and that it is not possible for any country or region no matter how many financial challenges it faces to ignore the need for investment in ICT," he noted. 

Abu-Ghazaleh said that we are still in need for investment in the ICT infrastructure and for the purchase and sale of computer systems and developing programs since using these methods is the decisive factor for economic development; moreover he added that orienting businessmen, students and all sectors of society is the key to this development and that it is easy to make businesses reap the profits of at least the basic types of e-commerce."

 

The Conference tackled on its first day several topics on e-commerce where Abu-Ghazaleh and Dr. Patrick Karyan discussed working papers on bridging the digital divide and its reflection on the economic development while Mr. Jose Estrella discussed the legal framework of e-commerce and risk management.

Moreover, the latest challenges facing the financial environment for e-commerce was revealed as well as the ICT infrastructure and future plans to enhance technological development in Jordan.