AMMAN -- Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour met on Sunday with prominent Iraqi businesspeople and officials on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2013 held at the Dead Sea.
In a session organised by Capital Bank, titled "Jordan gateway to Iraq", the premier highlighted vital economic and commercial issues, most prominently boosting cooperation between Jordan and Iraq, one of the fastest growing economies in the world, particularly in the energy, financial services, information technology, communications and real estate sectors.
Ensour said the Kingdom has been building on its "strategic position, security, country-to-country relationships, free-trade agreements, educated work force and pool of talent, in order to position Jordan as a gateway for business to access markets across the MENA region reaching to over a billion global consumers".
He also said that the Kingdom has taken the "initiative -- before the Arab Spring events unravelled -- towards implementing much needed political and economic reforms including constitutional amendments, a new elections law and building blocs for representative political parties. But economic challenges continue to be the most daunting".
Ensour said Jordan is building a policy to overcome the declining growth levels standing at 3 per cent through implementing an aggressive fiscal reform programme, supported by the International Monetary Fund, to bring the budget deficit down to 3.5 per cent by 2015, according to a Capital Bank statement.
The premier added that the Kingdom is setting up an enabling business environment through multiple programmes in cooperation with the World Bank, OPEC and other international agencies to facilitate lending to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which constitute 95 per cent of Jordanian businesses, while 10 pre cent of them can benefit from the credit facilities extended by the Kingdom's banks.
On the other hand, Bassem Salem, chairman of Capital Bank, which holds a major stake in the Iraqi National Bank, said that Capital is the only Jordanian bank in Iraq, thanks to an agreement that began in 2004 between Capital Bant and the Iraqi government.
He said he saw in Jordan a "key partner for implementing major infrastructure projects such as the Basra-Aqaba pipeline... and opportunities in cross border business".
Salem revealed Capital Bank's intention to fully activate the Jordanian-Iraqi free trade agreement, pointing to increased Jordanian exports to Iraq.
"This [free trade agreement] accompanies a year-on-year increase in export from Jordan to Iraq in the first three months of 2013 of 49.8 per cent. These made up 16 per cent of all Jordanian exports, exceeding all other destination countries."
© Jordan Times 2013
