Ceremony honours local entrepreneurs

AMMAN — Planning and International Cooperation Minister Imad Fakhoury on Monday attended a ceremony honouring the advisers and distinguished entrepreneurs of the 2017 Enhanced Productivity Centres Project (IRADA), where six advisers were awarded, in addition to 12 projects from each governorate.

Since its inception 15 years ago, IRADA has contributed to the establishment of more than 10,000 small and medium home projects that have provided more than 26,000 self-employment opportunities, according to a Planning Ministry statement.

The youth sector has been the largest beneficiary of the programme, which helped support the development of these projects through specialised technical, administrative and financial training, quality control and marketing processes, as well as economic feasibility studies.

Over 21, 000 studies were conducted and some 8,000 graduates of universities and private sector institutes were trained, 20 per cent of whom were later employed in these institutions.

Coordinator of the IRADA Hisham Shaaban said that the honouring ceremony, which is organised for the first time, sheds light on Jordanian success stories, showing the great efforts exerted by the entrepreneurs to establish productive projects in their regions.

Fakhoury said that the programme contributed to the fund and the follow-up on the implementation of over 1,800 micro, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in 2016-2017, and to finance more than 200 infrastructure projects that had a direct impact on improving livelihoods, the statement said.

It also helped implement various development initiatives targeting youth and women, the minister noted.

Fakhoury stressed that the ministry, in cooperation with various entities, carried out an awareness raising campaign on the available lending, financing and advisory windows aimed at supporting individuals and community organisations in all governorates, the statement read.

He said that a networking scheme for the graduates of the programmes of the National Company for Employment and Training and the Vocational Training Corporation was implemented with the government financing, credit and consulting agencies, built on the outputs of the training, the statement concluded.