AMMAN — The
Jordan Strategy Forum on Tuesday said
that there has been a tangible decline in investor confidence in Jordan,
according to the forum’s 2021 survey.
اضافة اعلان
The survey showed that the percentage of investors who
believe that investments are moving in the wrong direction increased by 69
percent in 2021, compared to 55 percent in 2020. Furthermore, only 19 percent
of those sampled said that they believe things are moving in the right direction.
In the context of economic activity, investors in the
commerce sector believe that 86 percent of things are not moving in the right
direction. Moreover, smaller companies of 10 employees or less, and medium-size
companies of 11-50 employees, constitute up to 70 to 71 percent of those that
believe things are moving in the wrong direction.
Around 56 percent of investors also believe that conditions
in 2021 were worse than those last year, while 16 percent believe the opposite
is the case. However, 50 percent of investors showed optimism towards the
future, believing that conditions will be better in 2022, while 30 percent
estimated that economy will be worse in 2022.
Survey results
also indicate that 71 percent of investors believe that the investment
environment is not encouraging, marking an increase compared to 63 percent last
year. The percentage of investors who think that Jordan has an encouraging
investment environment declined to 27 percent as of April 2021, compared to 34
percent recorded in an August 2020 survey.
COVID-19 and the economy
In order to measure the pandemic’s effects, the forum
asked investors whether they are likely to increase their revenues to cover
their obligations during the next three months. Some 56 percent of investors
said that they would not be able to cover their obligations, while 27 percent
anticipated the opposite.
The forum also asked the investors about the
government measures and programs which were taken to curb the effects of COVID-19.
It turned out that 68 percent of investors have never heard of the government
measures, while 77 percent agreed that the measures were not sufficient to
prevent the crisis’ repercussions from affecting their work.
Nevertheless, the prevailing opinion from investors
indicated that up to 49 percent of investors think that the government measures
are moving in the right direction while one-third of them indicated that the
measures are moving in the opposite direction.
The survey also indicated that around 37 percent of
investors showed a tendency, or at least thought about, moving their
investments outside Jordan over the past three years.
Based on the survey’s results, the report
issued by the forum emphasized the importance of reevaluating government
measures and drawing up a shared road map with the private sector to include
all sectors and companies, especially small businesses.
The report also recommended
reviewing taxes, customs, and prices, in addition to facilitating work and
encouraging investment.
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