(Jordan Times) — Bankers, lawyers, government officials and representatives of Jordan's IT industry were briefed on the international practices of E-banking during a workshop held on Monday at the Zara Convention Centre.
Sponsored by int@j and the information technology sector in Jordan, the workshop is the first in a series of 12 technical workshops to be held over the next five weeks that come on the heels of REACH 2.0, a review process launched earlier this month of the REACH Initiative.
“Throughout the world IT initiatives have succeeded because they were led by the private sector, but had high support and positive actions of government. This partnership is the keystone of the REACH Initiative,” stressed Maher mouasher, general manager of SMS.
The main feature of the workshop was a presentation by Paul F. P. Coenen, an AMIR Programme consultant and president of the American Electronic Strategy Associates (ESA), which highlighted the four levels of activity in e-banking environment including system service; specialised business logic; administration including marketing and payment processing.
Coenen pointed out that these four levels of activity contain all of the key aspects of e-banking and each can be expanded to allow for larger and smaller users.
In comments underlining the need for an e-banking law, Coenen stressed that “applying e-banking in Jordan will completely change the manner by which commercial transactions are conducted. This change requires a law to set the rules of e-banking practices by all parties involved.”
The presentation was followed by a Question and Answer session intended to elicit comments from the participants with respect to the topic of the workshop and the type of the law envisioned for regulating e-banking in Jordan.
The ideas, comments and suggestions made in all 12 workshops will be compiled by working teams comprised of: IT Industry Development, Regulatory Framework Strengthening, Human Resources Development, Government Support, Capital and Finance and Infrastructure Development team.
The input of the participants in the workshops and all concerned will form an integral part of the five weeks of regulatory work devoted to formulating a law for e-banking in Jordan, which will commence upon conclusion of the workshop.
The Reach Initiative is the national strategy and action plan for launching Jordan's software development and IT services industries. Int@j is the information technology association of Jordan representing the industry through the leading companies in the IT sector.
© 2000 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
