businesses. This will enable them to maintain autonomy in their respective businesses while also allowing for more efficient and agile operations. Small and medium-sized enterprises, on the other hand, will have the advantages of speed and the agility needed to participate in these ecosystems18. JORDAN’S ROLE WITH RESPECT TO KEY TRENDS The increasingly digitized world requires that Jordan exploits the advantages that the country has and finds its place in the global value chains. Below are discussed five key areas with which to unlock Jordan’s potential. Jordan’s true differentiator lies in the combination of these key areas. LEVERAGING PARTNERSHIPS HIGH-LEVEL STRATEGIC As mentioned in the key trends section above, digital global value chains today are a dominant feature of the world economy. This means that the production of goods and services is carried out wherever the necessary skills and materials are available at competitive cost and quality, creating growing fragmentation of production across borders19, and thereby increasingly relying on digitization for collaboration across borders. To deliver according to the required quality and time specifications, lead companies in global value chains increasingly rely on specialized sub-suppliers, which become knowledge and innovation partners, and provide the small companies privileged access to global markets. In an upcoming publication from the OECD, they conclude that the winning companies and countries in a digital economy are those who understand how to leverage resources and overcome limitations of size through networking and collaboration20 . Jordan has a good ICT infrastructure and historically, a strong focus on skills and education due to a lack of natural resources21, particularly to be found among professionals with some years of work experience. In addition, Jordan is a source of IT talent for major companies in the Middle East22. Building on the ICT infrastructure and the human capital, with the steps that already have been taken to reform the curricula to the needs of the digital economy and Jordan’s ICT sector23, as well as future steps for further reforming, Jordan will have a strong role to play 18 Schwab, Klaus (2016): The Fourth Industrial Revolution, World Economic Forum 19 OECD (2013): Implications of global value chains for trade, investment, development and jobs 20 OECD (2016) Committee on Digital Economy Policy: Stimulating Digital Innovation for Growth and Inclusiveness: The Role of Policies for the Succesful Diffusion of ICT (Draft background report for ministerial panel) 21 int@j: Jordan ICT sector profile 22 int@j: Jordan ICT sector profile 23 Current work is being done on this. In collaboration with industry and universities, a process has started to develop industry based occupational profiles, which will be piloted and the model can be replicated to other ICT occupations and across clusters.