European ambassadors check on investment opportunities in Mafraq zone

MAFRAQ — Eleven ambassadors of EU member states in Jordan visited the Mafraq Development Zone on Monday to see how much it is ready to host investments in the future. 

Thabet Al Wir, chairman of the Jordan Investment Commission, said based on the outcomes of the London donor conference, the industrial sector is a major investment target in the Kingdom, and Mafraq, some 80km northeast of Amman, is among the areas targeted to host investments from EU countries.

“The industrial sector includes textiles and ICT. We believe that Mafraq has the potential to be a place of employment, and storing and reshipping many products to countries in the region,” Wir told The Jordan Times during the visit.   

EU Ambassador to Jordan Andrea Matteo Fontana said the visit was “important”. 

“We have seen real Jordanian businesses which are already producing today for the world market and which already have the technology. I think this shows that there is a concrete opportunity to increase the scale of production and exports particularly to the European Union,” he told The Jordan Times.   

The ambassador noted that there is a lot of potential to tap into European Union markets, which is important for Jordan today. 

Fontana stressed the need for economic development to address unemployment problems, noting that “it would be good” for Syrian refugees who are still depending on humanitarian aid to become more independent by obtaining a job to feed their families.

The EU official said Jordan’s holistic approach to the refugee crisis, outlined at the London conference, is “visionary”.

“It is a new approach because it moves the management of the Syrian refugees from [the] humanitarian to [the] development [perspective] so it does not see them as a cost for the economy but as an opportunity,” he added. 

Fontana said the EU is also looking at the possibility of enhancing the skills of both Jordanians and Syrians so that they can match the needs of the labour market.

“When we match them we will produce economic development and job opportunities,” he added.