EU, Orange Jordan inaugurate Irbid Digital Village

The European Union (EU) and Orange Jordan inaugurated the Orange Digital Village in Irbid, as part of “Innovation Space”, a three-year project co-funded by the EU’s “Innovation for Enterprise Growth and Jobs” programme. The event was attended by head of economic, infrastructure and trade facilitation at the EU delegation to Jordan, Sirpa Tulla, mayor of Greater Irbid Municipality, Nabil AlKofahi, deputising for governor of Irbid, assistant to the governor, Rami Al Bader, president of Yarmouk University, Professor Islam Massad, and dean of Hijjawi College for Engineering Technology at Yarmouk University, Professor Muwaffaq Otoom, head of Agence Francaise de Development in Jordan, Laurent Duriez, as well as the CEO of Orange Jordan, Thierry Marigny, in addition to several executive directors and managers, and media representatives.

The Orange Digital Village in Irbid marks the continued growth of the “Innovation Space” project, following the opening of the Orange Digital Village in Aqaba. Both are an extension of the main Orange Digital Village in the capital, and each village offers an integrated space for several free Orange Digital programmes.

Orange Digital Village in Irbid comprises a coding academy that provides training in programming languages and personal skills required in the labour market, in addition to internships in the IT-sector, which embodies the project’s goal of "training for employment".

The village also includes a Fabrication Lab (FabLab) that offers training on the latest machines, tools and programmes in the field of digital fabrication, as well as BIG by Orange, a Business Startup Growth Platform that supports entrepreneurs with their start-ups.

During the event, the CEO of Orange Jordan, Thierry Marigny, stressed the company’s keenness to extend the reach of free digital programmes across the Kingdom, as they will enhance youth’s employability, equip them with the needed skills and support start-ups in governorates with large and young populations like Irbid, valuing that the partnership between EU and Orange Jordan to continue implementing the “Innovation Space” project and expand the circle of beneficiaries of digital education and contribute to empowering them.

The EU-funded “Innovation Space” project supports the expansion of Orange’s digital programmes to include nine Community Digital Centres, in addition to five new coding academies, five FabLabs, eight start-up accelerators and incubators, in addition to an “Innovation Hub” at the Orange Digital Village in Amman.