Labour-intensive projects boost job opportunities in Jordan

The government has focused on labour-intensive investment projects that utilise local input for increasing job opportunities, Industry and Trade Minister Hani Mulki said Saturday. He told The Jordan Times that although projects that benefited from the investment law in Jordan went down sharply during the first five months of this year, yet employment opportunities created by the new projects went up from 6,800 during the first five months of 2010 to over 7,200 during the same period of this year. “This shows that the government investment policy concentrates on added value projects,” Mulki said. According to Samer Asfour, chief executive officer of Jordan Investment Board (JIB), overall investments that benefited from the incentives offered by the investment law reached JD336 million during the first five months of 2011, compared to JD805 million during the same period of last year. Asfour attributed the decline in the value of investments to political unrest in the region. Local investments in the 140 projects registered by the end of May represented around 81 per cent, reaching JD272 million, according to Asfour, who indicated that the industrial sector accounted for the largest share of the registered investments, followed by hotels and agriculture. However, the JIB chief expected foreign and local investments to pick up this year despite regional unrest, stressing that the Kingdom’s stability and security may attract investors to carry out their projects in the country. He noted that the new investment law, expected to be discussed during the upcoming parliamentary session, will focus on attracting Arab investments, which he said represented around 70 per cent of overall investments over the past five years.