_: Jaghbir stated that the Kingdom’s industrial sector has “huge” production capabilities amounting to approximately JD18 billion through production of more than 1,500 diverse goods from various industrial activities and sub-sectors, which are manufactured at industrial facilities nationwide.
Additionally, Jaghbir noted Jordanian industries possess “large untapped” export opportunities exceeding $6 billion, according to recent International Trade Centre (ITC) studies and data estimated over the next five years.
“Untapped” export opportunities are available to local products in global markets, in light of the same existing size of Investment as if resources were fully employed, he said.
Jaghbir pointed to the key challenges facing investment of these opportunities, primarily high production costs, as such differences with competitors in global markets reach more than 25%.
“Weakness appears in networking, marketing and promotion processes, as well as poor activation of reciprocity principles and mechanisms,
bureaucracy, and business environment procedures,” he said.
According to Jaghbir, the untapped export opportunities came within multiple sectors and national products, most notably fertilizer industries worth JD1.5 billion, chemicals about JD1 billion, clothing at JD674 million and metal industries at JD553 million.
He added that value of untapped export opportunities for the pharmaceutical products sectors amounted to JD500 million, jewelry and precious metal products at about JD311 million, in addition to many other products, such as paper, food, plastic, and others.
Jaghbir noted that investment opportunities in Jordan’s industrial sector that can be invested came within Economic Modernization Vision (EMV) goals, which estimated the expected volume of investment in high-value industries at approximately $14.4 billion during the coming years.
This figure, he noted, constitutes approximately 35% of the total domestic and foreign investments targeted to be attracted into the national economy under EMV in
the chemical, pharmaceutical, textile, food, engineering, and mining industries.
Jaghbir stressed that investment of these opportunities has direct and indirect impact and a “major” impact on the national economy in its various indicators.
Every Jordanian dinar spent in the industrial sector returns directly and indirectly JD2.17 to the national economy, he said, adding that this sector is the largest employer of workforce by recruiting a quarter of the workforce in the Kingdom and annually creates 40% of job opportunities in the private sector.
Source: Jordan News Agency