Industrial sector recovers, overcomes pandemic fallout

Amman Chamber of Industry
Amman Chamber of Industry (Photo: Jordan News)
AMMAN — Jordan's industrial sector has started to recover from the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic from the middle of the year, head of the Amman Chamber of Industry, Fathi Al-Jaghbir, said Tuesday, according to the Jordan News Agency, Petra.اضافة اعلان

Al-Jaghbir said that industrial exports picked up by over 23 percent during the first half of 2021 compared to the same period last year, noting that such growth is unprecedented and has not been seen in previous years.

The Kingdom's industrial exports amounted to JD2.549 billion in the first six months of this year, compared to JD2.071 billion and JD2.138 billion in the same period of 2020 and 2019 respectively, Jaghbir said.

He also expected the sector would record a growth of more than three percent during the first half of 2021, compared to last year, based on the sector's performance and several economic indicators in various domains.

Jaghbir pointed out that the industrial sector’s trading volume at the Amman Stock Exchange during the last eight months of this year tripled in value compared with last year, reaching about JD288 million against JD94 million in 2020, and JD207 million in 2019.

The industrial sector, Al-Jaghbir said, is considered one of the largest contributors to GDP, accounting for almost 24.7 percent of GDP directly and 40 percent of GDP indirectly. The industrial sector’s exports amounted to 93 percent of total exports from Jordan, and it products reached more than 142 markets around the world.

Talking about investments, Jaghbir said that industry accounted for 80 percent of the foreign investments flowing into Jordan over the last decade, while the volume of investments in the sector reached about JD15 billion.

"Partnership between the government and the industrial sector has improved during the recent period," Jaghbir said, adding that government has put this sector among its economic priorities for the next two years.

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