Business Enabling Environment
One of int@j’s most important objectives is to advocate on behalf of the industry and promote dialogue between the private sector and the government and public policy makers at large. int@j seeks to build a proactive coalition between stakeholders to effectively campaign on behalf of members, and also works to promote the success of the ICT and ITES industry at regional and international levels.
Through our effective and established lobbying mechanisms, int@j plays a key role in influencing national policy-making. We have already seen significant success in eliminating legislative challenges and cutting red-tape, and we continue to lobby to dismantle barriers that face the industry. Advocacy through int@j provides many advantages for our members over lobbying individually.
These include giving more strength to the arguments and being able to advocate that a certain policy is not in the sector or public interest. Individually, the companies cannot make the claim that they are advocating for the public good.
Export Development
As a core service to its members, int@j has been working (since its inception) to increase the penetration and enhance the visibility of its members in the regional and international ICT marketplace.
To complement its efforts, int@j has embarked on a USAID-JCP funded Export Development Program. The program will help Jordanian ICT companies further to find partners in targeted markets, conduct market research and organize trade events that will lead to more exports.
In addition, int@j recognizes the importance of IP-based companies (companies who have intellectual property in ICT), therefore, int@j is developing an IP Portal: IP Reach for companies to define their IP value, which will also reflect on their export readiness and competitiveness in the regional and international markets.
Also, one of the Exports Development Program (EDP) roles is to assess the export readiness of Jordanian IT companies to become export-ready, through providing different services to help them penetrate new markets and find new business opportunities in existing markets
HR Development
Skilled human resources are the fundamental input into the ICT sector in Jordan. The challenges the sector faces mainly include finding the right resources with the right knowledge despite the high number of annual graduates in ICT from different universities. Outdated universities curricula and lack of soft skills and awareness of global technology trends form key challenges to employment of fresh graduates. int@j’s objective involves developing a reliable, sustainable pool of industry professionals within Jordan, which will maintain Jordan’s reputation for highly skilled human resources. Our HR development initiatives include sector salary scales studies, industry-academia skills gap assessment, employment programs and a Graduate Internship and Employment Program, which subsidizes 50% of a fresh graduate employee’s salary for the first twelve months of their employment.
In 2015 int@j embarked on the launch of the Jordan Skills Standardization Organization (JoSSOr) program that aims to bridge the ICT skill gap between graduates and employers.
Start-ups
From the beginning Int@j believed in the importance of start-ups & how they drive & impact country economy, for that reason and in order to support startups it launched:
Blue Ocean Council: A body dedicated to provide technical & professional advisory services to individual entrepreneurs & companies in the ICT sector.
Darat Al-Reyada: A Public Incubator Launched in partnership with MOICT & Amman Chamber of Commerce & provides entrepreneurs with services like: needed infrastructure, dedicated space, strategic support and mentoring.
Access to Finance
int@j supervises a number of projects that expand access to finance for the IT private sector in Jordan. We work towards developing readier access to investment companies. int@j is also working with Banks, the Central Bank of Jordan and others funders to improve access to Bank Finance for ICT SMEs.
ICT Demand
ICT sector is no longer viewed as a stand-alone sector, but that digitalization is highly embedded in other sectors as well, for this reason int@j has been working on
- Identifying Clusters such as financial, healthcare, education, creative, clean-tech …etc
- Promoting use of technology,
- Building Special Relations with Membership Organizations (Chambers, Associations, etc…)
The country needs to stimulate the demand for ICT products and services by developing internet-literate citizens and encouraging individuals, businesses and the government to adopt digital applications and e-services beside latest technologies.