Jordan and Rwanda Sign Digital Economy MoU Focused on Telecom Interconnectivity and Shared ICT Projects

# What was signed and where Jordan and Rwanda signed a Memorandum of Understanding on digital economy cooperation during the 81st U.N. General Assembly session in New York. Jordan's Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship Minister Sami Smeirat and Rwanda's Information Communication Technology and Innovation Minister Paula Ingabire signed the agreement.

# Scope of the MoU The document spans a set of concrete ICT areas: AI, cloud computing, digital identity, cybersecurity, data protection, telecom infrastructure and interconnectivity. It also explicitly covers digital payments, the Internet of Things, big data, smart cities and data centre disaster recovery.

# Why telecom interconnectivity matters here Stronger coordination between national networks targets practical outcomes: better roaming for users, smoother data exchange between operators, and an improved environment for cross-border digital services. For carriers and VoIP providers, closer links between networks can reduce friction for testing new services and enable pilots that span both countries.

# Institutional connections and implementation needs The signatories want more than technology sharing. The MoU aims to connect government bodies, businesses, universities and research centres across both countries. That creates four implementation needs:

• Commercial testbeds and pilots with willing businesses and operators.
• Public sector alignment on priorities and procurement.
• Funding and public–private arrangements to move pilots into production.

# Governance and regulatory gaps to address Areas like AI, digital identity and data protection require explicit rules and operational guardrails. The MoU sets a cooperative framework, but execution depends on agreeing common standards, data-handling practices and privacy protections. Without that, projects risk delays, fragmented deployments or public trust issues.

# Data centre disaster recovery as a practical deliverable Including disaster recovery for data centres signals a focus on operational resilience. As services migrate to cloud and hosted platforms, backup and disaster recovery arrangements between countries can keep public services and business platforms running during outages.

# Smart cities, IoT and big data: complexity and ownership Smart city and big data projects typically involve multiple government agencies and private partners. The MoU's inclusion of these areas creates potential demand for network and cloud capacity, but success depends on clear project ownership to avoid duplication and fragmented systems.

# What success will look like

# Practical implications for operators and service providers Telecoms and cloud operators should view the MoU as an opportunity to:

• Offer interconnect solutions, roaming and cross-border routing services.
• Propose disaster recovery or co-location services tied to data centre resilience plans.
• Partner on pilots that combine AI, IoT or smart-city services with real-world testbeds.

Operators should expect that projects will require regulatory clarity on data transfers, identity, and AI use cases.

# Bottom line Rwanda across technical and institutional fronts. It identifies areas where shared infrastructure and coordinated policy could make cross-border digital services more practical, but the critical next step is concrete project planning, governance agreements and funding to translate intent into deployed services.