National centre for innovation launched

AMMAN — Jordan’s new National Centre for Innovation (NCI), a hub for private and public innovation aiming to move the country’s innovation economy up another gear, on Thursday was launched at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) 2018 Annual Meeting at the Dead Sea, an EBRD statement said.

The launching ceremony was held in the presence of Jordan’s EBRD governor, Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Imad Fakhoury, EBRD President Suma Chakrabarti, EBRD Managing Director for the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean Janet Heckman and EBRD Director for the Eastern Mediterranean and head of Jordan office Heike Harmgart. 

As a country with limited natural resources, Jordan’s economic growth is highly dependent on its ability to increase the value of products and services, and effectively develop and utilise its human capital, the statement said, noting that the Jordanian government has introduced a number of measures over the years to support the further development of its economy by enhancing its competitiveness and ability to create new opportunities through innovation. 

"As a result, Jordan is known for its active innovation ecosystem. However, innovation support is highly fragmented and comprises a complex network of organisations with a multitude of public and private stakeholders," the statement noted, adding that "it suffers from a lack of effective stakeholder coordination, inadequate collection and analysis of information, unclear channels and linkages, limited cooperation and inefficient financial management".

Jordan currently ranks 64th out of 141 economies in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index and 64th out of 143 economies in the Global Innovation Index, the highest position among the economies of the EBRD’s southern and eastern Mediterranean region. 

The establishment of the NCI as an online coordination platform with an office in Amman (and administratively attached to its initiator, the Higher Council for Science and Technology or HCST) will help the government to enhance policies and programmes that boost innovation-led, inclusive productivity growth. It will eliminate inefficiencies and create economies of scale through coordinating the actions of stakeholders, improving direct engagement between private and public stakeholders, and collecting statistics on the impact of innovation initiatives.

Funds for the first two years — $ 2.47 million — are provided by the MENA Transition Fund, a fund administered by the World Bank to support the improvement of the lives of citizens in transition countries, with technical cooperation funds to strengthen governance and public institutions, the statement concluded.