ICT

Holding the potential to become a major economic growth driver, Jordan’s ICT sector has seen decades of robust telecoms expansion and a liberalisation agenda launched in the early 2000s, supporting rapid growth in mobile penetration and internet usage. Jordan’s ICT sector has been the focus of a series of recent government reforms aimed at supporting macroeconomic growth, with new lending programmes and multiple tax incentives supporting tech firms and IT service providers. The same cannot be said for telecoms operators, which face one of the world’s highest sector-specific tax burdens, with ongoing government efforts to accelerate fiscal consolidation remaining a cause for concern among stakeholders. Recent sector development strategies have identified multiple ICT business lines offering considerable private sector investment opportunities, with the ongoing e-government services and digitisation drive expected to support private sector growth, enabling sustainable long-term development and the eventual transformation into a knowledge-based economy. This chapter contains an interview with Ghazi Al Jobor, CEO, Telecommunications Regulatory Commission.