Business forum organised on sidelines of trilateral summit with Cyprus, Greece

AMMAN — Minister of State for Investment Affairs Muhannad Shehadeh on Sunday said the Kingdom enjoys experienced personnel and promising sectors that can utilised.

Attending a Jordanian-Cypriot-Greek business forum, which the Jordan Chamber of Commerce organised on the sidelines of His Majesty King Abdullah, Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ trilateral summit, Shehadeh called on the three countries’ businesspeople to work to improve commercial exchange and establish joint ventures.

The minister added that exportation was a main contributor to the growth of the national economy and was not limited to goods but also includes services. Shehadeh said that Jordan had succeeded in becoming an advanced service centre in the ICT and innovation sectors, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

He also referred to the recently issued report by the World Economic Forum, which showed that 27 Jordanian companies were among the top 100 start-ups in the Arab world, adding that 75 per cent of content Arabisation on the Internet was done in Jordan.

Shehadeh pointed out that the Kingdom was also the first country in the region to enact a law on renewable energy, and the sector’s investment volume had reached JD1.5 billion in the last two years.

President of the Jordan Chamber of Commerce Nael Kabariti expressed hope in the three countries building solid economic, commercial and investment relations.

President of the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry Christodoulos Angastiniotis said that the forum was an important opportunity to address challenges and obstacles hindering the possibility of increased commercial exchange among the three countries.

Grigoris Stergioulis, president of the Greek investment and trade commission, said that the three countries had no choice but cooperate and build up relations so as to benefit from reconstruction projects in Syria and Iraq.

The Kingdom’s national exports to Cyprus in 2018 totalled some $1 million, compared with $50 million in Cypriot exports to Jordan. The Kingdom’s exports to Greece amounted to $9 million, compared with $54 million worth of Greek imports to Jordan during the same year.