‘Blue Ocean Council’ to help local ICT companies grow

AMMAN — The ICT Association of Jordan (int@j) has announced the launch of a council of ICT experts to help companies grow and support those with business ideas to turn them into income-generating projects.

The “Blue Ocean Council”, which includes a wide array of experts in the field, will help individuals start their ventures, assess their feasibility and develop a business plan, int@j Chairman Jawad Abbassi said at a gathering this week to review achievements and successes in the sector in 2013.

“The council seeks to help small companies deal with the challenges they face,” Abbassi added, stressing the importance of the ICT sector, which annually contributes about 14 per cent to the country’s gross domestic product.

According to int@j figures, some 52 ICT firms closed in 2011 due to several challenges, while 48 companies shut down their offices in 2012.

“We seek to help existing companies and even individuals with ideas for start-ups to better understand the market so that they do not end up going out of business,” Abbassi said.

The council is dedicated to providing technical and professional advisory services to individual entrepreneurs and companies in the ICT sector aiming at the development and management of new intellectual property and competitive ICT products/services, through ensuring originality, exportability, scalability and innovation, according to an int@j statement e-mailed to The Jordan Times.

“The council seeks to build and enable access to large specialised networks of business experts and mentors in various areas,” the association said.

During the event, Abbassi reviewed several achievements in the sector in 2013 and highlighted some of the challenges.

The association will start collecting data on the ICT sector’s revenues and exports starting February, he said, adding that the results are expected to be ready by early March.

Abbassi said int@j will focus on enhancing and increasing Jordan’s ICT exports in 2014.

The association is planning to open offices in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the US to help connect Jordanian businesses in the fields with partners and peers in these countries and to increase the Kingdom’s share in projects implemented in these countries.