AMMAN (JT) - His Majesty King Abdullah on Wednesday met with Yahoo co-founder and CEO Jerry Yang and several top executives from the US-based Internet giant, which recently acquired the Amman-based web portal Maktoob.com.

At the meeting, attended by HRH Prince Feisal, the King stressed Jordan’s keenness to boost cooperation with the Internet giant to develop the IT sector in the Kingdom, whose revenues rose from $300 million in 1999 to $2.4 billion in 2008.

There are about 350 Jordanian companies working in the sector that have created 18,000 direct jobs, in addition to 60,000 indirect jobs, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

King Abdullah highlighted the achievements made in the local IT sector, pointing out to success stories, including the Maktoob.com achievement, which he said reflects the development of the sector, which contributes about 12 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product.

Late August, Yahoo! acquired the Amman-based Arabic web portal in late August, giving the company access to Maktoob’s approximately 16.5-million-strong audience across the Arabic-speaking world.

Through the deal, Yahoo! will offer Arabic-language content for the first time and versions of its products and services, including instant messaging and e-mail, in Arabic.