Al-Zu'bi: Jordan's participation leaves notable impression at WSIS
11 Dec 2003GENEVA – Dr. Fawaz Hatem Al-Zu'bi, Jordan's Minister of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT), confirmed that the participation of Jordan in the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), which is currently being held in Geneva, has surpassed the stage of identifying Jordan's capabilities, prospects and achievements in the field of informatics.
This message was embodied in a call by the Ministry of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) from the public sector and by Mr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh from the private sector to attend a roundtable meeting that was held yesterday, to participate in the preparation and development of some of the recommendations for submission to the Summit. Four recommendations were identified to be approved by a second meeting to take place in the Republic of Tunisia in the year 2005.
Al-Zu'bi pointed to the effective role that Jordan plays in the field of informatics, a role that has attained it a highly held position in this field on an international scale.
In a special interview with Al-Dustour, Al-Zu'bi said: "The Jordanian participation in this Summit will basically focus on the e-learning initiative adopted by the government and will aim to accommodate the necessary arrangements to consolidate the relationship between Jordan and other countries."
The Minister also confirmed that other lines of participation were also identified, revealing that the Jordanian delegation will be signing a cooperation agreement with the Irish government with the aim of exchanging expertise, especially that both the Jordanian and Irish experiences have proven their success in this field. The minister also added that a framework for this cooperation will be developed for the support of certain issues.
The culmination of this cooperation will be crowned with the convention of an international conference related to informatics and communications next March in the Republic of Ireland which will be organized by both countries. The highest level of Jordanian participation is expected for the consolidation of bilateral relations between the two countries and from thereon Jordan and other countries in this field.
The other line of participation in which Jordan will be engaging in is related to an agreed program between Ireland and the United Nations in the field of informatics which calls for the creation of a program that monitors and evaluate developmental projects around the world.
Dr. Zu'bi said that Jordan will Arabize this program, publish it and present it to different parties be it governmental, from the private sector or from non-profit organizations, pointing to the great benefit that Arab countries will attain from this program which will contribute to creating an interaction between those countries in the topic of ICTs.
Dr. Zu'bi confirmed that this international summit has provided an opportunity to meet representatives of international IT firms to research the extent of its contribution in supporting the e-learning project, given that such meetings provide for valuable opportunities that need to be exploited to support the e-learning initiative which will take a segment of the next DAVOS conference where each of the Minister of Planning, the Minister of Communications and Minister of Education will be participating to introduce the initiative and clarify the level that it had reached and the achievements it has accomplished.
Dr. Zu'bi confirmed that several meetings were arranged with a number of international firms such as Nokia to name a few, especially after the opening up of Jordan's mobile telecommunications market for competition, pointing out that it is within the work of the Ministry to encourage these international companies and familiarize them with the legislative and organizational status of Jordan to ensure its credibility and encourage it to bid for a third operator.
The Minister will deliver a speech on behalf of H.M. Queen Rania Al-Abdullah in an ICT conference to be held under the sponsorship of the WTO. There will also be another meeting with WIPO where the Jordanian experience in disseminating health information on the Internet will be exposed to the international world.
Dr. Zu'bi stated that several other issues will be discussed in the Conference ensuring effective Jordanian participation in these discussions. Some of these issues will include internet management and establishing a special committee for it through international participation whereby general policies and ways to deal with such policies could be identified including the re-identification of government roles in this field with the contribution of other private and civil sectors.
With regards to Arab cooperation in the field of informatics, Dr. Zu'bi said that Arab countries have participated as a unified bloc in this meeting and will be a participant in the signing of the main principles and plans to be discussed the Tunisia Conference.
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