Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - Prime Minister Hani Mulki said Saturday that the government's economic stimulus strategy aims to automate economic procedures to arrive at the digital government by 2020, where the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector will have a key role to spur investment.

Mulki told a meeting of the ICT Advisory Council, which comprises the Minister of Information and Communications Technology, specialists and entrepreneurs, that his government attached paramount importance to the ICT sector as a mainstay of the national economy and a promising sector that creates jobs for Jordanians.

He urged the ICT Advisory Council to adopt measures to enhance the economic stimulus package, which he called "dynamic and open to any ideas".

During the meeting, Minister of Information and Communications Technology, Minister of Public Sector Development, Majd Shweikeh, outlined the council's priorities in the next stage, mainly endorsing the priorities of the digitization agenda for the various economic sectors/ digital economy, and networking with the other stakeholders for that purpose.

She pointed to the importance of the digitization of the Jordanian economy as a key engine of growth and job generator, describing it as another building block added to the available infrastructure and skilled manpower.

The minister outlined measures that had been taken toward e-government, adding that ministries and government entities will start 10 exclusive e-services as of 1/1/2018, which will be less costlier than traditional methods. She hailed the promptness of the Central Bank of Jordan in the area of e-payment.

Shweikeh said a solid plan had been put in place to arrive at E-Jordan 2020, starting with re-engineering government measures in 13 institutions and then automation to the infrastructure for e-transformation. Jordan, she said, had in previous years made wide strides regarding the switch to
e-government, but the service launched earlier was modest and its impact was not felt by the public or investors.