There is a paradox that is hard to understand in a country that talks a great deal about supporting national industry, encouraging investment, and providing jobs for its sons and daughters, and that speaks at length about plans to raise exports and strengthen self-reliance.
اضافة اعلان
On our visits to government institutions or private-sector companies, we are served water or juices from non-Jordanian companies, some Arab and some foreign, even though Jordanian markets are full of local products of the same kinds, with competitive quality.
The greater paradox is when this behavior comes from institutions that are supposed to be concerned, directly or indirectly, with supporting the national economy. It makes no sense to call on citizens to buy the Jordanian product while the same commitment is absent from the purchases of institutions and companies.
Supporting national industry cannot be a slogan raised at conferences and promotional campaigns. The real test appears in purchase invoices, which expose the double standard we practice toward local industry.
A purchase is an economic decision. When an institution buys a Jordanian product, the money goes to the factory owner, to workers who receive their wages, to suppliers and transport and distribution companies, as well as to the packaging, marketing, and service sectors, and to investments that can expand as demand grows. A dinar spent on a local product has a better chance of being recycled within the national economy.
Institutional purchasing should not be underestimated. It looks different once we add up a full year of purchases by ministries, departments, public institutions, universities, banks, telecommunications companies, hotels, large corporations, and civil society organizations. We would then be looking at a large market and enormous purchasing power.
The loss extends to the image of the national product in people's minds. When people find the foreign brand in institutions and companies, it sends an implicit message that this brand is the one of higher quality, status, or merit. We thus create, with our own hands, a consumer culture that links quality with the foreign and places the local product in a lower rank before it has even been tried, which is a great injustice to national industry.
This does not mean buying the local product merely because it is local. National industry does not need flattery, and consumers should not be asked to buy a poor or overpriced item under the banner of patriotism. Such thinking harms industry more than it serves it, because it shields weakness and reduces the incentive to improve. What is needed is that when a Jordanian product is available with the required quality and specifications at a competitive price, it should be given priority.
This is an economic rule that can become a clear institutional policy, with government institutions and large companies beginning to review their procurement policies. Annual indicators could also be set for the share of local purchases, especially in sectors where Jordan has a good productive base, such as food, pharmaceutical, chemical, plastic, and paper industries, furniture, clothing, and others.
The private sector is concerned to the same degree. Corporate social responsibility is not limited to donations, grants, and sponsoring activities. A company that allocates a larger share of its purchases to local suppliers and producers practices a more sustainable form of social responsibility, because it helps raise demand, create jobs, and support other companies operating within the economy.
We are not calling for closing the market to foreign products. Competition is necessary, and economic openness is a reality that cannot be reversed. What deserves criticism is that hidden conviction that makes some of us feel that serving a foreign brand to our guests is more prestigious, and that the local product is fit only for personal consumption.
It is this culture that must be changed, because we cannot demand stronger factories, more employment, and more investment, and then direct part of our purchasing power abroad when a suitable national alternative is in front of us.
