A delegation of US information technology (IT) companies this weekend finished a several-day visit to Jordan, during which they met local counterparts and learned about government efforts to nurture the industry, reported the Jordan Times newspaper.
“I spoke to Jordanian IT [entrepreneurs] today,” delegation member Patrick Teaque, president of US company Teaco, said at a dinner in honor of the eight American guests on Wednesday.
“Their businesses and my business are the same. [In one case], it turned out we even deal with the same manufacturer. I felt like I was talking to myself.”
The visit, organized by the Jordan-US Business Partnership (JUSBP), started on Tuesday as the second and last leg of a regional tour including also Egypt.
The representatives of seven small and medium-size IT firms, ranging from e-business solution providers, to systems integrators, dot.coms, and distant learning specialists, were to leave the kingdom in two separate groups on Friday and Saturday, organizers said.
They held one-on-one talks with the representatives of 14 local companies and visited IT-related government departments, educational institutions and tourist attractions.
“This is a country that has been exporting its talent to other countries and is now buying into the idea of bringing this talent back,” Teaque continued.
Praising King Abdullah's drive to foster the development of the IT and software industry as a strategic engine of economic growth, Teaque said he and his colleagues “look forward to sharing in the great vision of this small country with big ideas,” - a reference to an on-going government-sponsored feel-good campaign – Albawaba.com
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