AMMAN — The Ministry of Planning and International
Cooperation and International Finance Corporation (
IFC), a member of the World
Bank Group, on Tuesday signed three agreements to support private investment in
Jordan, increase the Kingdom’s competitiveness, and open new markets for local
firms.
اضافة اعلان
Under the agreements, IFC will help
Jordan strengthen and
simplify a range of existing legislation, and help introduce new reforms in
support of private sector businesses, making it easier for them to trade, grow,
and create jobs. This is especially important as Jordan works to recover from
the economic effects of the
COVID-19 pandemic.
The agreements were signed by the Minister of Planning and
International Cooperation Nasser Shraideh, on behalf of the Jordanian
government, and IFC’s country manager for the Levant, Abdullah Jefri.
Shraideh said that these agreements will strengthen the
investment climate in the Kingdom, supporting the country’s business
environment and competitiveness, both regionally and globally, and helping
government efforts to speed economic growth and recovery.
He added that the agreements aim to reduce costs for
businesses by rationalizing registration and licensing procedures, simplifying
procedures for issuing building permits in the capital, and improving
competitiveness in the main sectors of the Jordanian economy by improving
compliance with international standards to enable Jordanian exports to enter
global markets.
The minister affirmed that the government will continue with
economic and financial structural reforms and partner with the private sector
to promote economic development through a number of steps, which include
increasing the private sector’s role both domestically and internationally.
For his part, Jefri said: “Our new advisory initiatives in
Jordan are focused on helping create a more favorable, fair, and competitive
business environment and reducing the cost of doing business. This will help
generate more investments in key sectors, boost exports and job creation, and
drive long-term, sustainable economic growth.”
Under the first agreement, IFC will provide advisory
services to the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Supply to implement an
integrated business registry system by supporting legal, institutional, and
administrative reforms, automating sectoral licenses and permits through
electronic services, and providing an electronic platform for integrating and
collecting regulatory procedures through a single point of contact to improve
the mechanism followed by registering businesses
Under the second agreement, IFC will support the Greater
Amman Municipality in simplifying the licensing and monitoring system for
buildings within the Greater Amman Region to reduce bureaucracy, cut red tape,
and minimize the time needed to issue construction permits. The municipality is
expected to establish a virtual one-stop-shop for construction permits in
addition to developing the regulatory framework for building control. This is
expected to reduce the burden on the private sector and enhance the
predictability of the business environment using several tools.
These tools include developing the legal and regulatory
framework for building monitoring, implementing the most effective practices in
the use of information, communication, and technology applications, enhancing
transparency, and reducing compliance costs in the building control system.
Under the third agreement, IFC will work with the Jordan
Standards and Metrology Organization (JSMO) to facilitate the entry of
Jordanian industrial products, including pharmaceuticals, into international
markets. The agreement aims to raise the efficiency of Jordanian industrial
products and increase their access to international markets by modernizing the
national quality infrastructure in line with international and regional
practices and enhance the level of market control.
IFC will offer technical support to JSMO to modernize its
quality infrastructure and its national industrial standards, including those
for the pharmaceutical industry, which would help Jordanian companies gain
access to international markets.
The agreements are part of IFC’s broader strategy in Jordan,
which focuses on boosting access to finance for smaller businesses and women
entrepreneurs, supporting entrepreneurship and the digital economy, and helping
to narrow the infrastructure gap. The
advisory projects will be implemented in partnership with the governments of
the Netherlands and Japan.
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