‘USAID programme activities to promote jobs in green technology’

AMMAN — The Jordan Competitiveness Programme will launch a series of activities in the next few months to help create jobs, boost renewable energy adoption and foster entrepreneurship.

Under the programme, launched by USAID in 2013, job fairs will be held in Amman and Maan Governorate next month for vacancies in green technology industries.

“The objective of the fairs is to create linkages between companies working in the green technology sector, and professionals and graduates with skills to work in such a field, which has lots of potential and room for creating jobs,” Ruba Al Zu’bi, director of clean technology at the programme, said at a meeting with the press Wednesday.

Some of the planned activities will cover the ICT sector, according to Mais Daoud, director of information and communications technology at the programme.

The Jordanian chapter of the Girls in Tech — a global nonprofit focused on the engagement, education and empowerment of women in technology and entrepreneurship — will be opened in March, Daoud said at the meeting.

“This will empower women in the ICT field, support entrepreneurs and increase employability of women in the ICT sector,” she said, adding that some 30 per cent of the workforce in the sector are females.

Another partnership between the programme and Intel Corporation will be launched in April to support the ICT sector, Daoud noted.

The $45 million programme seeks to attract $700 million in foreign direct investments and create some 40,000 jobs over the next five years.

It also addresses women’s low participation in the economy — which stands at about 15 per cent — and high unemployment among young people, which stands at 37 per cent.

The competitiveness programme aims at enhancing energy and water management and efficiency, enhancing quality of products and boosting exports as well as capacity building for the human resources in the sectors included, among others.