New regulations for the country's over 130 Internet cafes will have to wait for a few more weeks, after a meeting of the Reach Advisory Council on Wednesday set up an ad-hoc committee to work out new rules.
The Reach Advisory Council, a private-public sector body entrusted with advising the government and overseeing the implementation of the national strategy for the development of the information technology (IT) sector, imposed a February 15 deadline for the committee to finalize a blue print for the new regulations.
“On Wednesday, we agreed on a few important guidelines, such as the definition of an Internet cafe,” the chairman of the Information Technology Association of Jordan (Int@j) Ra'ed Bilbessi, told the Jordan Times on Thursday.
Bilbessi, who is also a member of the six-member committee in charge of laying out the new regulations, said Wednesday's meeting resolved to consider Internet Cafes as “public information access points,” from all legal and administrative points of view.
As such, Internet cafes will have the same status as public telephone booths, will be licensed by the Ministry of Trade and Industry — and not, as current legislation stipulates, by the Interior Ministry — and there will be no limitations on their location, Bilbessi said. If owners want to serve beverages and food, or other services, they would have to obtain separate, appropriate licenses, he added.
Last week, Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Awad Khleifat angered IT companies by ordering local governors to ignore amended regulations on Internet cafes and refer instead to previous regulations.
Private sector sources interviewed by the Jordan Times described the minister's move as “falling from the frying pan into the fire” and said it suspended an already restrictive legislation to re-enforce even worse rules.
Current regulations require, among others, that Internet cafes be at least 200 meters away from mosques, that owners hold IT or IT-related university degrees, and that patrons be above 16 years of age.
In a press release on Monday, Int@j spelled out the IT sector's “concerns regarding the new regulations issued by the Ministry of Interior imposing restrictions on Internet cafes.”
“They are called Internet cafes... [but] those establishments are the furthest from being coffee shops, and the proper naming should be Internet libraries. They are the libraries of the future,” the statement said. “Moreover, those establishments serve mostly the young who are starving for knowledge, but are not privileged to own a personal computer, and cannot afford an Internet connection at home.
One of the youngest users of such facilities could become the future Bill Gates of Jordan,” said the association, gathering some 50 companies accounting for an estimated 80 percent of the local IT sector.
The Reach Advisory Council, chaired by Minister of Telecommunications and Post Fawwaz Zu'bi, started procedures for a review of Internet Cafe regulations almost a month ago.
The committee appointed on Wednesday includes, in addition to Bilbessi: Majdi Yassin (Yassin Investment Company), Hussein Dabbas (Jordan Investment Board), Hatim Zeine (Zeine Technological Applications), Emile Cubeisi (Ministry of Telecommunications and Post), and Sharif Abdullah Bin Zeid.
The Reach Advisory Council is formed by: Karim Kawar (Int@j), Salah Al Bashir (International Business Law), Ma'moun Balqar (Telecommunications Regulatory Commission), Olivier Faure (Jordan Telecom), Omar Masri (Atlas Investment Group), Randa Ayoubi (Rubicon), and Ahmad Sacca (Jordan Computer Society).
The thriving business of Internet cafes in Jordan could earn the Kingdom world fame: A half-kilometer street in the northern city of Irbid, boasting some 105 Internet cafes and Internet access points, could enter the Guinness Book of World Records. — ( Jordan Times )
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
