Amman  - Jordan's telecommunication investments reached one billion dinars (1.4 billion dollars) over the past seven years, the head of the country's Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, Ahmad Hiyasat, said Thursday.

Speaking at a foreign investment conference currently in process in Amman, Hiyasat said a number of laws and regulatory decisions had "helped to boost the competitiveness of the country's telecommunications sector."

Hiyasat said the Jordanian government had "completely withdrawn from the telecommunications sector" and Jordan had become the "first Arab country where the government has no possession whatsoever of a sector which it regulates."

"Furthermore, Jordanian laws allow non-Jordanians to possess 100 per cent of telecommunications projects in the country," he added.

He said the commission's strategic plan for the coming two years provides for "continued liberation of the telecommunications and information technology sectors and boosting the environment of competitiveness" in the kingdom.

The number of internet users in the country increased at the end of 2007 from a year earlier by 30 per cent, to 1.2 million, while mobile telephone subscribers grew by 83 per cent to 4.8 million, he added. (dpa)