The Government of Jordan and open source database management company Ingres have signed an agreement to promote open source software adoption in the country and make Jordan a regional centre for open source software.

The MoU between Ingres and the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology of Jordan (MOICT), aims to increase expertise and competence around open source software.

Samer Shamayleh, director of strategic agreements, MOICT said: 'We are pleased to promote the benefits of open source in our region and our role in becoming the open source ‘hub' for the Middle East.'

'Our agreement with Ingres will help us to raise awareness and create a general understanding among government agency leaders about the value of open source software. Open source allows IT systems to be built without expensive up front investments in license fees and, with Ingres, without compromising on critical needs for privacy, security, and reliability that are crucial to our government agencies,' he added.

The MoU will initially focus on universities in Jordan, with the establishment of an open source laboratory in a Jordanian university, and boot camps and free training to certify individuals in open source. Arabic language training will be provided by Ingres' partner Duroob.

Ingres will also work to support MOICT initiatives to promote open source through workshops, academic initiatives, and local partner support.

Under the MoU, the Jordanian government will make open source software an alternative in government software purchasing decisions, and will also agree to assign resources to develop new functions for Ingres' open source database.

The agreement also includes an undisclosed project to develop government services, for which Ingres will train government specialists.

Roger Burkhardt, CEO of Ingres said: 'Government agencies are always looking for the best way to quickly deliver quality services for their citizens using advanced technologies, but they also have an obligation to taxpayers to drive down their IT procurement costs.'

'The open source model delivers cost savings through a subscription model that provides excellent support with a cost that is aligned to the value delivered and totally eliminates the expense of proprietary license fees,' he noted.

'We applaud the Government of Jordan as being the first to sign an agreement with an open source company to ensure the adoption of open source across the country. This is a huge first step and we hope to see other governments follow Jordan's lead by taking concrete actions to adopt open source to accelerate innovation and reduce the taxpayers costs,' he added.-TradeArabia News Service