 Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa. We are coming to you live from Dead Sea, Jordan, where we are here to talk about the Internet for All program in Jordan that we are launching today. My name is Eric White. I am the project lead for Internet for All at the World Economic Forum. The Internet for All project is about increasing multi-stakeholder collaboration to bring more Jordanians online and to advance the government of Jordan's digital transformation strategy. Through a structured program of meetings that bring together technology companies, civil society, industry, government, international organizations, and academia, Internet for All will identify impactful partnerships to accelerate new approaches for bringing people onto the Internet and into the Fourth Industrial Revolution. By employing a full-time project secretariat, the project will coordinate these partnerships to ensure that they achieve maximum impact. This will create millions of new Internet users in Jordan. We're very lucky to have a distinguished panel with us today to talk about the new initiative, so let me just take a moment to do introductions. To my immediate left, we have Hani Raad, General Manager for the Levant for Cisco. Then we have her Excellency, Minister Majd Schwecke, Minister of Information and Communications Technology, and Minister of Public Sector Development of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. To her left, we have Ahmed Alhanande, CEO of Zayn Jordan, and on the end we have Andrew Harper, Head of the Innovation Service at the UN High Commission for Refugees. So to begin the panel, I'd like to first turn to her Excellency Minister Schwecke and ask why the government of Jordan is interested in implementing Internet for All and what you expect the project to deliver for Jordan. Okay, good morning everyone. So happy to be here today to talk about this launch, the launch of Internet for All. We strongly believe that absence of connectivity is isolation in nowadays. We have maybe probably you have seen that Ministry of ICT and Ministry of Public Sector Development, and that's my new title, the Minister of Both Ministries, and the question was why. We strongly believe that Jordan should go through digitization transformational journey for its public administration, and it has many reasons. First, rule of law. Second, efficiency and effectiveness for the whole government. Third, enhancing the business enabling environment. And fourth, which is the most important to me, it's upgrading and enhancing citizen life. So Internet for All came just a spot on, and we really thank World Economic Forum for this initiative, and we were extremely excited because we strongly believe that Internet for All is the mean to having proper digitization and transformation journey in Jordan. We have identified areas of weaknesses, but we have identified the opportunities. We're, Alhamdulillah, in Jordan, the Internet penetration rate reached 80, 85%. The mobile penetration rate with a very resilient state of the art infrastructure for mobile operators, we have reached 150% penetration rate on mobile. So we know that we have the readiness from mindset, from infrastructure, from people who are keen and eager to use technology. In terms of infrastructure, we said by 2020, we will have the National Broadband Network, which is connecting Jordan from South to North. And having the real legislations, laws and legislations, pure proper human capital skills, so we said we are ready. We identified four areas to focus on. First of all, e-government adoption, e-government services adoption. And the reason for that, we have learned from our experience that there is this fear from using Internet for e-services. Well, we need to build confidence, and that's one of the main pillars for Internet for All. The second one is for women empowerment. I strongly believe that connectivity is a mean of empowering women. Having access to Internet, having access to what's happening in the world from educational point of view, from entrepreneurial point of view, it's key, and it's really influential. The third element, which is very close to our hearts as well, to me, it's the Arabic content. Once we have the e-services, we will have abundance of data, abundance of data. And we all know that big data is the new name of the game. So I strongly believe that 3% of Arabic content is not enough. Having the services online, we will have all this data, which should allow, again, entrepreneurs to have the opportunity to start new services, new products. And of course, Arabic content should be the mean of having more access and more enticing, but again, relevant content, not any content. Because we know that culturally speaking, people, they go to the Facebook and to social media platforms because of communicating in Arabic. No, we would like to have added value content in Arabic in order to build their capacities and to enrich their knowledge. The fourth element, which is a fact we're living, we have refugees, and it's our aim to include these refugees in our health sector, in our education sector, for the well-being of Jordan. So we have four areas of focus, a government adoption, empowerment of women, and women empowerment, third one, Arabic content, and the fourth one, refugees. Thank you. Thank you very much, Minister. So on the point of refugees, I'd like to now go down to the end of the panel and ask Andrew Harper from UNHCR. Why is UNHCR interested in being involved in internet for all, and why is it important for refugees to be connected to the internet in the first place? Thanks, Eric. And I'd like to say that's a perfect segue from Her Excellency to my intervention because often the strength of a society can be assessed by what services are being provided to the most vulnerable. And unfortunately in the modern day and age, refugees are a reality. And the fact that the government of Jordan recognizes that in the World Economic Forum have brought the private sector, the government, and the UN agency responsible for refugees together is a fantastic demonstration of a commitment that the internet for all actually means the internet for all. So if we can provide communications, digital services, including as Her Excellency mentioned, education, health, financial security, that encompasses the needs of the most vulnerable, then it makes it much easier to cover everyone else. I believe that if we're talking about a generational transformed to take account of the digital revolution, then that is not just going to be fixated on one particular group. It needs to be looking at the entire society. And something which Jordan has recognized for some time is it is better to empower people than restrict people. And we need to empower refugees so they can contribute for themselves, move away from a dependency approach so they can actually contribute to the societies which has generously provided them safe haven. So we see refugees as a means to also contribute to the well-being of the Middle East and North Africa. But we also need the support of the international community to provide the, let's say, the safe space in which this digital transformation can be supported in countries like Jordan and elsewhere. So we see the digital transformation connectivity as the key to the future. Thank you very much, Andrew. So then to my immediate left, Mr. Rod, Cisco is a major global corporation. Could you talk a bit about what activities Cisco has engaged in in Jordan in connecting the unconnected and your interests in participating in Internet for All? So for nearly two decades, so we've been in Jordan for over 20 years working closely for the local government with the Ministry of ICT, other local stakeholders to drive the Kingdom Digital Agenda in support of the development of a robust knowledge economy and ICT ecosystem across multiple fronts, from the ICT skills development, training, infrastructure, and channel development. And to us, digitization, I mean, I would believe that it enables countries to maintain global competitiveness. We talk about increased GDP. We foster innovation. I mean, all these things are really popping up as we engage in any initiative in Jordan or even in our day to day development of the business. And because of the technology landscape and its fast change, we need, there are requirements for more complex skills, for skills that for jobs, we don't know what they are in the future. So our partnership with the local government of Jordan and the introduction of the Network Academy about 18 years ago, actually the Network Academy started about 20 years ago. So for Jordan to have 18 years ago, that means we really have an early start into developing skills in Jordan with enrolled over 16,000 students. We enroll currently about almost 3,500 a year. 41% of them are female. So when we talk about women empowerment, you see it, you feel it. This is one of the highest in the globe in terms of women. Not only this, we've introduced entrepreneurship and IoT courses. We are looking at Arabization of some of the academy content with just. So all of them are in line with what you're talking about in order to really kind of accelerate the adoption and digitization and also improve some of the skills. So it's not like just we're looking at, okay, teach him IT or teach him, you know, computer and so on. So it's more, it's beyond. It's now we're moving about unleashing the innovation and the creativity of the students, equip them with different, you know, thought leadership approach with out of the box thinking. We ran together with the MOICT, some software development camps here over a couple of days recently, which was the first in the Middle East. So you see a lot of activity happening in Jordan that are leading within the region that we'd like to actually strengthen that partnership with the government of Jordan. And with the initiative of the Internet for All, this comes exactly in line with the acceleration that her excellency also has been pushing us to participate in. And but as previously mentioned, we need to work together to bring this connectivity together. It cannot be done alone. So without the public-private partnership, without the stakeholders coming, sitting around the table, thinking collectively, putting it proper milestones, looking at the various hurdles and trying to remove those obstacles as we move forward, we can't just rely on the government to do it on their own. Even the citizens have their role. They have to embrace technology. Otherwise, we will lose the edge of acceleration. So I also want to mention that Cisco is involved in a number of regional Internet for All projects. So this is not our first. So we've done one for the African Corridor, Northern Corridor. We're involved in Argentina, Buenos Aires, Internet for All. We want to replicate what we've learned there. We want to bring it to Jordan. And we want to not replicate it, but actually learn from what we've done there and come out with something that people will replicate what we will do here. So I think we want to make sure that we innovate. We take it even further and make Jordan our model. So we're very, very pleased to be part of this initiative. We look forward to work together on making it a success under your leadership as well. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Rod. And then last but very certainly not least, Mr. Ahmed Al-Hanande is the CEO of Zayn Jordan. So as one of the leading telecommunications operators in Jordan, how do you see Internet for All contributing to the creation of a broader Internet user base in the country? And what is Zayn's interest in participation and contribution to the project? Thank you very much, Eric. I'm happy today that I'll be talking for the telecom industry in Jordan and on behalf of the telecom industry in Jordan, not only Zayn and why we as telecom operators would be interested to get involved in such initiative. To be honest, the industry has been investing heavily into growing the Internet infrastructure in Jordan. And it has been major and tremendous efforts from all operators to come up to the stage of reach, coverage as well as diversification of speed and capacity that is available in Jordan. And it has been always a main objective for us to reach every single corner of this country. Internet for All for us means not only the connectivity to the Internet, but it means what kind of Internet that we are trying to secure for All. Is it the educational Internet? Is it the health Internet? Is it the building capacity Internet? Is it the e-commerce Internet? I was hearing, I was in a session yesterday and it was said clearly that the major channels of spending for consumers are being disrupted, which means consumers are going to, the need is going to be unleashed very soon for consumers to be on the online world and do transactions on the online world because it's efficient, it's cost effective and it's faster than going and spend offline. Accordingly, the online world has to be ready for that. The base for it is the Internet. The main requirement of the infrastructure for the online world is the Internet. And as we talk about the digitization and the transformation where the Internet is going to be the main pillar for the transformation and digitization in Jordan, it becomes very, very clear for everybody that we'll have to be part of these efforts and we'll have to coordinate and cooperate with all the stakeholders and Internet for All gives us that chance to be part of a joint effort in Jordan and that will help us to direct our investments for the future. That will help us to be more responsive to the needs and requirements of the users of the Internet in each and every sector, in each and every geographical location in Jordan. And from there, I think, and plus our target to maximize the utilization of the Internet infrastructure in Jordan for the purpose of securing better revenue streams for an infrastructure that actually got a huge amount of money invested into building it and maturing it to the level where it is today. From there, we found this initiative as a great initiative for us to be involved in, for us to support, for us to play a major role into it in order to achieve the mutual interest and to secure the mutual or actually it secures a mutual interest for all stakeholders from the consumer part, corporate and private sector government as well as telecom operators. Thank you. Okay. Thank you very much. So with that, I'd like to open the floor to questions from the audience. So a couple of points on how we're going to do this. So when you ask a question, we've got a microphone in the back that will come to you so please raise your hand, state your name, your organization, and ask your question clearly and succinctly. Please questions, not comments, and also please keep your questions on topic. So we have several minutes, so the floor is open. Thank you. Hello to all. This is a very exciting initiative. I'm Janet Longmore with Digital Opportunity Trust and Dot, globally in Dot here in Jordan. We all know and we've heard from the past few days about the power of young people as early adopters of technology. And so I'd love to hear from the panel, as you know, Dot is engaged in partnering with you as well and we mobilize young people. But how do you really see and how can we look at ensuring that there is support for the role that young people can play in building digital literacy skills, reaching out to women, moving into more marginalized communities and driving that adoption and creativity in the use of the tools that are out there. Thank you. Let's take a couple of questions and then we'll answer all of them together. Okay. This is Vagah Jazeem from Jordan News Agency. My question to Mrs. Majdeshweka. What is the impact of this initiative on the society regarding creating jobs and also the competitiveness? Thank you. Okay. Can we have another question that we can take as well? In the back. Thank you very much. Because we don't have translation, so I'm just going to throw the floor to the minister and she can address them. I'll skip the youth because I'm sure it can be covered. I can speak about it but I'd rather focus on the two other questions. Impact on society and creating jobs. Maybe you have heard about Leach 2025 initiative, which is, of course, it is initiative by His Majesty and we worked heavily with all stakeholders on reaching digitization or digital economy for Jordan by 2025. When we did our analysis, we found that our competitive edge in Jordan is our human capital and we have a very resilient infrastructure. We have very enabling legislation. We have very, let's say, advanced and modern way of thinking. We have the political will. We said, let's take all these components and see how can we integrate the technology in every other sector. For example, in transportation, in health, in education, in clean tech, in fintech. When we looked at this study and we did our analysis, we found out that if we go this path, we definitely empower entrepreneurs. It will be a great opportunity for them to create new companies. I wouldn't say new jobs but creation of companies will be a result of this direction. Our estimate that if we go this path with the plan we have, which is infrastructure regulation, advanced programs and human capital, we will be able to have probably around 130 to 150,000 new jobs between now and 2025. That's why it's very important that we have the platform for that. The platform for that is internet for all. That's why we believe that this is spot on and it's one of the enablers when we speak about the digital transformation. I haven't talked about our plans but I will speak about our plans. May I speak in Arabic? Okay. The most important thing from the government's steps is to put forward the digital transformation plan, the economic transformation plan. The digital one. And this came to us in a study that we found out that, thank God, the Lord of the worlds is in Jordan. He is an expert in our speed with technology. When Ahmed talked about technology, there has been a huge investment and investment in the development of technology and information. And there has been an agreement on mobile. When we talk about a government, the world stopped saying a government. They started talking about smart government because in the course of time, the way the internet is connected to mobile or the way the computer is connected to it, you need access, you need internet access. This has been a part of our daily life. It has become a part of our daily life, the social, the economic, the political, the cultural, all of the stages. So, in this respect, we are talking about the digital justice that exists among all citizens. It is possible for the communities and I haven't talked much about the type of the cold and the digital transformation because these businesses are present. I am not saying that the country is not independent. There is no cold, there are unknown sites, there must be digital services. There must be a lot of them, because in fact, some skills are developed, the youth can do it, and the first time when we got here, they said, what do you benefit from the internet for all? Educate, empower, engage. Learn, place, engage, and share them to all, whether in terms of education, culture, social or health, so for us, the internet for all has become a responsibility for us, it has become a responsibility for us because the internet has become like electricity, like water. There is internet in every house of the most important institutions that we are looking at. Sorry Eric, I had to speak in Arabic. Thank you. Absolutely fine. We have a few more minutes. I'll just go, it's probably just not only youth, I think what we have to be looking at is providing a digital learning opportunity and engagement for everyone, and then give options, no matter who they are, because I think also just focusing on youth, people who have missed out on a learning experience due to no fault of their own, so I think it's the issue of making sure that the internet is all accessible for all and people have the digital literacy to also use it correctly as well. We understand the concerns in the region so it's more about empowering for the good while mitigating potential risks. To be honest on the youth part I would comment, I would agree and disagree with what he said. But the thing is I have to agree with you that the focus has to be on the youth. I'm happy to see youth attending the World Economic Forum this year and I was happy to see that they're looking to the future positively because of technology. Every single entrepreneur I met in the World Economic Forum this year see his future in technology. The thing is those are the selective groups that we brought into the World Economic Forum. We want the whole youth of Jordan to see a potential for themselves in technology. To be able to do that they have to be familiar with technology and they have to be experienced with technology and they have to see the opportunities that is there in the technology and the technology revolution is going to create a revolution in the job availability for the youth to grow up. Everybody knows that the older studies say more than 50% of the jobs that are available today are not going to be available tomorrow because of technology and there are new jobs that will be created. 60% of the kids in schools today are going to work in jobs that they don't exist actually today. So at the end of the day this is all driven by technology and I agree with you in the Arab world in specific where the youth represent the majority of the community where in 5 years from today we are going to need 10 times the jobs that we need today because of the number of people graduating every year from the school I see that there is a huge potential in technology being the answer to all the questions and the main solution to most of the challenges that youth are going to face in the very near future so I have to agree with you that we have to build the capacity of youth when it comes to technology, we have to secure that they understand that internet is not just a connectivity it's a platform full of opportunities where they can create their jobs online rather than go and try to find a job and search for a job offline. Thank you very much Unfortunately we are out of time so what I would like to do is thank the panelists for their excellent contributions Thank you in the media and in the audience for attending and this concludes the internet for all press conference Thank you