HispanicBusiness

Cisco Systems, Inc. is committed to supporting Jordan's health and education sectors, according to John Chambers, the company's chairman and CEO.

"Jordan's health and education models are some of the best models in the world and we have been working in the country and engaged in several initiatives for a long time now," Chambers told The Jordan Times this week on the sidelines of Cisco Live 2012.

"If Jordan had natural resources, it would have been an international power and the country is doing good in these sectors in light of the available resources," he said during the IT expo, which attracted more than 17,000 experts from across the world and a virtual audience of over 120,000 people.

"King Abdullah and Queen Rania are two of the most enlightened leaders in the word and they focus on improving these two sectors," Chambers noted, commending Jordan's efforts in focusing on e-education and e-health services.

Jordan's main asset, he said, is its people, stressing that human resources play a key role in its development.

"Jordan is one of the key countries in the world that plays a major role in attaining peace in the Middle East," he said.

Highlighting the company's corporate social responsibility activities and initiatives, Chambers said Cisco is committed to going ahead with initiatives across the Middle East to improve the lives of citizens in the region.

Cisco is one of four international companies that have shown interest in completing the country's National Broadband Network, which seeks to improve e-services in the fields of health and education, according to the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology.

The multinational firm is also a partner in the Kingdom's first Healthcare ICT Task Force, which Chambers joined His Majesty King Abdullah in inaugurating at the World Economic Forum meeting at the Dead Sea last year.

Last August, the government and Cisco launched a health clinic that is implementing Cisco care-at-a-distance technology that brings patients and physicians at Mafraq Public Hospital together with specialists at Prince Hamzah Hospital in Amman for healthcare consultations.

The project marked the "first implementation of Cisco's HealthPresence solution in the Middle East and Africa region" as part of the Jordan Healthcare Initiative.

At the Jordan-US Business Forum in May last year, Chambers announced that Cisco will implement $10 million worth of information technology projects in the Kingdom over the coming 10 years.