Business

ISTANBUL — Turkish Central Bank Governor Erdem Basci, a technocrat reluctantly thrust into a standoff with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, appears to believe he will eventually ride out the storm.

In his shoes, many bank chiefs might already have quit. Erdogan's relentless demands for sharper interest rate cuts, his assertion that the bank is under outside influence, and his equating of high rates with treason have left Basci struggling to restore investors' confidence.

Yet those close to the former professor, who is respected on financial markets for his command of economic theory, say he is optimistic that Erdogan's rhetoric is little more than populist theatre before a parliamentary election in June.

While reluctant to talk politics even in private, Basci has made clear he does not plan to stand down, saying last month that a public duty must be performed for the full period in which it is assigned.

Economic growth, a pillar of the ruling AK Party's electoral strength over the past decade, is flagging. Industrial production fell more than two per cent in January, data showed on Monday, adding weight to Erdogan's case against Basci.

"He is cornered," said Selin Sayek Boke, deputy chairwoman of the main opposition CHP, who, like Basci, taught economics at Ankara's Bilkent University. 

"If he resigns he is going to be blamed for bringing havoc to the financial markets. If he does not resign, he will be blamed [for stalling growth]," she adeed.

A meeting expected in the coming days between Basci, Erdogan, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan, in charge of the economy and a close Basci ally, could be crucial.

When the central bank lowered its main rate in January to 7.75 per cent, government ministers immediately said the 50 basis point cut was not enough to support growth.

But with the lira tumbling to record lows last week and inflation stubbornly above target, Basci is likely to try to persuade Erdogan of the need to keep monetary policy tight.

"I think Basci is living under an illusion. He's still not resigning. He's assuming Erdogan can be persuaded and the tension can be eased after the parliamentary election," said one source familiar with the thinking inside the central bank.

Others in the institution fear Erdogan's statements will only intensify and "spin out of control".

"[Some] think this is a political manoeuvre by which Erdogan aims to put the blame for the deterioration in growth and rising inflation on somebody else, and claim that the economy got worse because they didn't listen to him," the source added.

‘Creative technician’ 

Basci's fate is seen as closely tied to that of Babacan, a top figure in Turkey's economic management team for more than a decade and respected by foreign investors.

The two were childhood friends, their fathers were both small business owners in Cikrikcilar, a neighbourhood of artisanal workshops and traders in Ankara's old town. They went on to study together at the city's Middle East Technical University.

"Basci is a smart man who's well aware of what's going on. But the reason he's remaining in office is his personal relations with Babacan," said Ugur Gurses, a former central banker and newspaper columnist.

"He thinks that Babacan will have to endure the consequences of his resignation and he's resisting until the end to avoid this," he told Reuters.

Unable to raise rates because of the political pressure, Basci has been trying to support the lira by other means, on Monday cutting foreign exchange deposit rates, the bank's third back-door attempt since last week to prop up the currency.

"[Basci] has been a creative technician... He tried to please the markets together with the politicians," said the CHP's Boke.

His hands had been tied, she added, by the government's failure to undertake structural reforms to reduce a large current account deficit that has left Turkey dependent on volatile foreign capital flows.

"If they want to avoid the depreciation, they're going to have to hike interest rates... We're an open economy, we haven't resolved our structural issues and clearly we need foreign financing," Boke indicated.

Davutoglu and Babacan spent much of last week in New York, trying  to reassure investors that the outlook for Turkey was bright despite the row over monetary policy.

One bank strategist briefed by colleagues said the delegation had emphasised that there would be no "aggressive reshuffle" of the economic team before June.

But after the election, things will be less certain, particularly if Erdogan pursues his battle against the "Cemaat" network of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, an ally-turned-foe whom he accuses of plotting against him through influence in state institutions.

"The central bank and the Treasury are the last fortresses of the Cemaat. A considerable number of people think Basci remains in office due to their support," said the source familiar with central bank thinking. "What kind of steps will be taken for these institutions will be clear after the elections."

Pakistani residents shopping at a Pakistan's biggest mall in Islamabad last week (AFP photo)

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan has begun chasing wealthy tax-dodgers who enjoy lives of extravagance and luxury, but revenue officials face huge challenges in trying to force the very richest, and most influential, to pay up.

Pakistan's tax-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio of 9.5 per cent is among the lowest in the world and the government is under pressure from foreign donors and lenders, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to increase collection to boost the struggling economy.

Revenue authorities say they have identified about a quarter of a million new taxpayers who they project will add around 14 billion rupees ($140 million) to government coffers.

Broadening the tax base and improving the economy after years of drift and sluggish growth under the last government was a key pledge in Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's 2013 election campaign, when he was swept to power for a third time.

Currently less than 1 per cent of Pakistanis pay income tax and the government collected just $8 billion in total income tax in the 2013-14 fiscal year, barely enough to cover just the country's defence expenditure of $7 billion.

The finance ministry is aiming to boost the tax-to-GDP ratio to 15 per cent in the current fiscal year ending June 30.

As part of those efforts, the Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR) is compiling lifestyle and vehicle data to try to trace unregistered taxpayers, including wealthy landlords and businessmen zipping between their luxury homes in imported Mercedes.

"We are collecting information from the vehicle registration authority, car manufacturers, utility companies, telecom companies and property registration offices and tracing people who are not paying any tax," FBR spokesman Shahid Hussain told AFP.

Taxpayer profiles 

The data is used to generate profiles of potential taxpayers, after which demands are issued for them to pay income tax.

"FBR has already issued notices to 261,250 potential tax payers," Hussain indicated, noting that new taxpayers have paid 570 million rupees since the crackdown started.

It is not just dodgy businessmen who have been caught, several lawmakers have been found paying either no tax or very little and not filing their mandatory annual tax statements.

The FBR has taken punitive measures against some "chronic defaulters", freezing nearly 300 bank accounts, seizing more than 100 vehicles, putting 78 properties up for sale and issuing arrest warrants in 40 cases.

"Employing information technology, the FBR is creating a central database which would contain information about all taxpayers and nobody will be left undetected," Hussain said.

A new FBR department tasked with broadening the task net started working in July 2013 and within one year it started showing results, he added.

But Pakistan is a country where wealth and political influence go hand-in-hand. 

For generations, landowners and industrialists have given patronage to political parties and scant attention has been paid to their assets by the taxman.

Changing this privileged arrangement is a tricky proposition.

Umar Cheema, an investigative journalist for Pakistani daily The News who has done several major exposes on tax-dodgers, describes the FBR's commitment as encouraging, but does not expect the campaign to net any big fish.

'War on tax cheats' 

"FBR is after those who can't influence them," Cheema said, citing several well-known tycoons considered among Pakistan's richest whose names were missing from a list of the country's top 100 taxpayers.

"It can be done only by waging a war against tax cheaters without discrimination of good and bad cheaters," he added.

Pakistan's central bank said in a recent report that tax revenue growth was not keeping up with budget targets.

The tax take grew 11.7 per cent in the first quarter of the current fiscal year, against an annual target of 26.9 per cent, but this was only half the growth of the same period during the previous fiscal year, according to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).

The central bank has urged the government to simplify tax procedures and do more to increase the documentation of the economy.

A vast amount of business in Pakistan is done off the books, making transactions hard to trace and levy dues on.

"Although FBR has taken a number of measures to increase tax collection, these focused more on deductions at source, and/or increasing the tax rates," a recent SBP report said, warning such measures had enjoyed "limited success" in the past.

The IMF, though, has said the government's reform programme, tied to a $6.6 billion loan from the Washington-based lender, was on track, and expects growth to accelerate to 4.3 per cent in the 2014-15 fiscal year from 4.1 per cent previously.

But even with growth quickening and officials insisting they are making inroads, challenges to the government's efforts to gather taxes remain considerable.

KUWAIT CITY — World crude prices are expected to gain this year or at least stabilise at between $50 and $60 a barrel, Kuwaiti Oil Minister Ali Al Omair was quoted as saying.

"Forecasts for the oil price this year indicate that it will gain or at least stabilise between $50 and $60 a barrel," the official KUNA news agency quoted Omair as saying late on Saturday in Bahrain.

The minister indicated that prices are currently supported by conflict in Iraq and Libya and by a drop in sand oil and shale oil output. But that is counterbalanced by slow global economic growth, which is dampening demand, Omair said.

World prices dropped at close on Friday as the dollar rose sharply, making dollar-priced crude more expensive for buyers using weaker foreign currencies.

West Texas Intermediate for delivery in April slid $1.15 to $49.61 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, ending near its week-ago level. Brent North Sea crude for April, the international benchmark, dropped 75 cents to $59.73 a barrel in London.

AMMAN — The finance lease volume in the Kingdom is estimated at JD1.2 billion, 80 per cent of which is directed to the real estate sector, Amjad Saeh, president of the Jordan Association of Finance Lease Companies, said Saturday.

At a workshop on finance lease and its importance to the national economy, Saeh noted that there are 16 finance lease companies in Jordan, seven of which are owned by commercial banks, four by Islamic banks and five are owned by non-bank institutions.

Participants discussed all articles in the finance lease law to raise awareness on how to complete transactions at the Land and Survey Department.

Muein Sayegh, director of the department, highlighted the importance of organising such workshops, in cooperation with the department’s partners, for their role in acquainting employees with the law and explaining how the mechanism transactions are carried out.

LONDON — The euro tumbled through the $1.09 level to strike a fresh 11.5-year low Friday as the ECB nears the launch of its massive stimulus package and strong US jobs data raises the possibility of a US rate hike soon.

The single currency sank to $1.0845 as European markets closed, the lowest since September 2003, after strong non-farm payrolls data increased expectations that the US Federal Reserve (Fed) may move to begin hiking interest rates in the coming months.

But with the European Central bank (ECB) to begin its 1.1 trillion-euro quantitative easing stimulus on Monday, most eurozone stock markets pushed higher.

Frankfurt's benchmark DAX 30 index of top companies closed up 0.41 per cent to 11,550.97 points after reaching an intra-day record high of 11,600, while in Paris the CAC 40 rose 0.02 per cent to 4,964.35 points.

On the downside, London's FTSE 100 index ended the day down 0.71 per cent to 6,911.80 points, having posted a record closing high on Thursday after the ECB announced its bond purchases will start this week.

The euro tanked against the dollar after the US Labour Department said Friday that the US economy pumped out a stronger-than-expected 295,000 net new jobs in February.

Analyst Craig Erlam said the good jobs numbers "will only feed into expectations for a rate hike from the Federal Reserve in June".

"The rally in the dollar immediately after the release clearly supports this view...," he added.

Higher interest rates will make the dollar attractive, while the ECB's stimulus programme will flood the economy with euros and weaken its value.

ECB throws
'kitchen sink' 

Some analysts predict the eurozone unit could reach parity against the dollar amid a growing policy divergence between the ECB and the Fed.

The Frankfurt-based central bank is battling deflation risks across the 19-nation eurozone, while its US counterpart exited its own QE programme in October, and is mulling an interest rate hike later this year amid optimism over the American economy.

"Diverging policy stances between the Fed and ECB look set to persist for some time, pushing the euro towards parity over the medium-term as the search for yield drives euro area investors to increase exposure to overseas assets," RIA Capital Markets analyst Nick Stamenkovic told AFP.

However, Rabobank analyst Jane Foley cautioned that the Fed was mindful of weak US inflation.

"The ECB has indicated that it is prepared to throw the kitchen sink in with its attempts to beat deflationary risk and the resultant weakness of euro/dollar will undoubtedly help with the policy's success," she said.

She added: "We do not think that the Fed will hike [rates] until December, based on weak inflation. Consequently we think that euro/dollar will avoid parity."

NICOSIA/FRANKFURT — The European Central Bank (ECB) will launch into quantitative easing (QE) next week having increased its economic growth forecasts for this year and next.

President Mario Draghi said the first bond purchases with new money would take place on March 9.

The eurozone's central bank has said it will buy 60 billion euros a month until September 2016 or until inflation is pushed back towards a target of close to but below 2 per cent.

The ECB, which left interest rates on hold at record lows just above zero at its meeting off-base in Cyprus on Thursday, lifted its growth forecast to 1.5 per cent for this year, from the 1 per cent it predicted in December.

For 2016, growth of 1.9 per cent is now expected, up from a previous 1.5 per cent.

"The latest economic data, and particularly survey evidence available up to February, point to some further improvements in economic activity at the beginning of this year," Draghi told a news conference.

"Looking ahead, we expect the economic recovery to broaden and strengthen gradually," he said.

An analysis of Reuters polls shows more than half the most important economic data reports from the eurozone since the start of the year have beaten the consensus forecast and many have topped the highest prediction.

Germany, Europe's largest economy, has led the way.

Inflation, now running at 0.3 per cent, is forecast at zero  this year rising to 1.8 per cent in 2017. That is sufficiently close to the ECB's target to suggest money printing will not run beyond September 2016.

The bank has a long way to go to convince markets its plans will be effective. Only half of the economists polled by Reuters think bond buying will help inflation rise towards the target of close to but below two per cent and half think the purchases will be extended.

There are tentative signs inflation has bottomed out.

The February reading of 0.3 per cent was above forecasts, oil prices have rebounded from January lows, growth is picking up and the euro hit a fresh 11-year low against the dollar overnight, boosting prospects for higher imported inflation.

"The risks surrounding the economic outlook for the euro area remain on the downside but have diminished following recent monetary policy decisions and the fall in oil prices," Draghi said.

Anticipation of the QE programme has driven eurozone borrowing costs down to the point where Spain can borrow for 10 years at under 1.3 per cent and investors actually pay for the privilege of lending to Germany for five years. Yields in Italy, Spain and Portugal dropped to record lows this week.

Some analysts have suggested the ECB would distort the bond market by buying bonds with negative yields. Draghi said it would only steer clear of bonds yielding less than the ECB's 0.2 per cent deposit rate.

Another concern is whether the ECB will find enough bonds to buy as the market is flush with uninvested cash while banks are under obligation to hold top tier assets, like government debt.

"There may be complexities. We think they are not relevant," Draghi said, noting that more than half eurozone sovereign bonds were held outside the currency area.

Draghi added that the ball was now in the court of eurozone governments who must contribute "decisively" to economic recovery with structural economic reforms.

"Decisive implementation of product and labour market reforms and actions to improve the business environment for firms need to gain momentum in several countries," he indicated. "It is crucial that structural reforms be implemented swiftly, credibly and effectively."

Draghi said the ECB will resume normal lending to Greek banks only when it sees Athens is complying with its bailout programme and is on track to receive a favourable review.

He also made clear the eurozone bank would not raise a limit on Athens' issuance of short-term debt to help leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras avert a funding crunch, since the European Union treaty barred monetary financing of governments.

The tough line, spelled out after the ECB's policymaking Governing Council met in Cyprus, added to pressure on Greece's radical new rulers to implement promised reforms under a bailout they had vowed to scrap but were forced to extend for four months to avoid running out of money.

"The ECB is a rule-based institution. It is not a political institution," Draghi told a news conference in Nicosia.

"The ECB is the first to wish to re-start the financing to the Greek economy provided the conditions are in place, and the conditions are that a process which suggests a successful completion of the review be put in place quickly. That is the condition and we will certainly welcome such a development," he said.

The required measures include pension reform, privatisations and a streamlining of value added tax to which Tsipras' hard left Syriza Party is bitterly opposed.

The troubled sell-off of state assets suffered another blow on Thursday when Greece's top administrative court blocked the sale of a luxury seaside resort outside Athens to an Arab-Turkish fund, court officials said.

The judges ruled the sale of the prime Astir Palace hotel complex and the development of the site breached planning rules and would harm the natural, cultural and urban environment.

Greek unemployment rose slightly to 26 per cent in December, while jobless totals are falling in other eurozone countries that have been through bailout programmes such as Ireland, Spain and Portugal.

Draghi said the central bank had doubled lending to Greece to 100 billion euros in the last two months, equivalent to 68 per cent of the heavily indebted country's economic output, but could not buy Greek bonds under its new asset-buying programme.

Lifeline raised

The ECB increased the ceiling on emergency lending assistance for Greek banks, introduced last month when it stopped accepting Greek government bonds as collateral for funds, by 500 million euros to nearly 69 billion euros.

Draghi said the ECB could only go on authorising this liquidity line as long as the banks were solvent with adequate capital, which remained the case despite massive capital outflows in the last two months due to political uncertainty.

The ECB had asked eurozone members keep a 10 billion euro recapitalisation fund on standby "to face any sudden negative contingency that might materialise now", he added.

Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis reached a deal with the eurozone, the ECB and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) last week on a four-month extension of a 240 billion euro financial rescue which had been due to expire at the end of February.

However, the creditors have blocked avenues suggested by Athens for temporary state funding in a drive to ensure Greece complies with the deal before any more aid is released.

With tax revenues falling, Varoufakis is trying to scrape together cash from government reserves and state pension and health funds to meet a crucial repayment to the IMF this month.

TEL AVIV — Israel will start buying some fruit and vegetables from the Gaza Strip next week, a partial resumption of imports halted when the Islamist group Hamas took over the Palestinian territory in 2007, Israeli officials said on Thursday.

They said the measure was designed to help a Gaza economy devastated by last year's war with Israel, and to make up for a shortfall in produce from Israeli farmlands left fallow during the current Jewish lunar calendar year in accordance with biblical law.

The move was welcomed by Jamal Abu Al Naja, director of the Gaza Vegetable Production and Export Association, who xpressed hope it would help make up farmers losses and eventually encourage working farms to seek bank funding to expand their production.

Some Palestinian farmers stopped cultivating their fields altogether or sold their land to housing developers after Israeli markets were closed to them in 2007.

Israel, which has been facing international calls to ease its blockade of Gaza, has been gradually relaxing restrictions on commerce across its fortified border since the July-August war which caused widespread destruction in the enclave.

It has allowed Israeli transit of Gaza-produced vegetables and Palestinian merchants to the occupied West Bank, and for Gaza farmers to bring tractors in via Israel since November.

COGAT, the Israeli military agencies that oversees civilian interaction with Gaza, said a shipment of tomatoes and eggplants would be brought in from the territory on Sunday.

"Future stages are expected to include a wider variety of vegetables, totalling 1,000 to 1,500 tonnes. Each tonne is valued at approximately 3,000 shekels ($750)," COGAT indicated in a statement, noting that the imports were scheduled to run the duration of the Jewish calendar year that expires in September.

COGAT deals with civilian authorities but shuns Hamas.

"The steps taken are meant to support the Palestinian population while segregating the Hamas organisation, which is an entity that prevents the reconstruction of Gaza and uses its resources," COGAT head Major-General Yoav Mordechai said.

Abu Al Naja said Israeli authorities had already carried out quality tests on tomato, eggplant, cucumber and zucchini samples.

"If implemented, it will help farmers make up for their losses, increase the number of workers and encourage investment in the agricultural sector," he told Reuters.

Separately, the Hamas-run energy authority said Thursday that Gaza Strip's sole power plant has halted production, following a dispute with the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority (PA) over fuel tax.

Hamas pays the PA for fuel imported to besieged Gaza, but is short of cash and had been unable to cover the additional costs in tax.

In December, Qatar stepped in and donated $10 million (nine million euros) to the PA to cover the tax, effectively exempting Hamas from paying it.

But that money has dried up, and the PA is insisting Hamas begin paying the tax again, the Islamist movement says.

"The power plant stopped producing electricity during the night, after funds from Qatari donations to cover fuel costs ran out," the energy authority said. "We are unable to pay for the fuel because of the taxes on purchasing it."

Gaza is blockaded and controlled by Israel on two of its crossings, and isolated by Egyptian closure of a third.

Israel facilitates the entry of fuel supplies.

A crisis-hit Hamas is unable to pay its own government and security employees due to the blockade and Egypt's closure of the border, with financial restraints hurting the group.

The plant requires 550,000 litres of fuel per day to produce at capacity, the energy authority says.

Even with the plant running, Gaza suffers 12 hours of power outages each day, and that is expected to increase to 18 hours after the plant's shutdown.

Many individual homes have their own generators, and households can purchase, expensively, fuel that comes into Gaza for private consumption.

Hamas and the Palestine Liberation Organisation, which dominates the PA, signed a unity deal in April that was to see the West Bank-based government take over administration and security of the Gaza Strip.

But pending various disputes, including over the payment of Hamas's security forces, the deal has yet to be implemented, and Hamas remains in control of Gaza.

The two sides agreed on a government of independents in June, but progress on reconciliation to fix a years-old split was further delayed by Hamas's war with Israel in July and August.

VIENNA — Vienna, Austria's elegant capital on the Danube River, has again been commended as offering the best quality of life of any city in the world; Baghdad, once more, was deemed the worst to live in.

The consulting firm Mercer said German and Swiss cities also performed well in its annual quality of living rankings. Zurich, Munich, Duesseldorf and Frankfurt remained in the top 10.

Mercer's survey helps companies and organisations determine compensation and hardship allowances for international staff. It uses dozens of criteria such as political stability, healthcare, education, crime, recreation and transport.

With a population of 1.7 million, Vienna topped the survey for the sixth year in a row, boasting a vibrant cultural scene alongside comprehensive healthcare and moderate housing costs.

The Austrian capital's extensive public transport system costs just 1 euro a day for an annual pass. Its Habsburg-era coffeehouses, architecture, palaces, operas and other cultural institutions make it a prime tourist destination.

Europe has seven of the world's top 10 cities in the 2015 survey. New Zealand, Australia and Canada each have a city in the top 10.

Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, was again ranked lowest in the world. Waves of sectarian violence have swept through the city since the American-led invasion in 2003.

BERLIN — Saudi Arabia's oil minister said on Wednesday he expected oil prices, which hit a near six-year low in January, to stabilise, signalling cautious optimistism about the market outlook.

Giving a speech in the German capital, Ali Al Naimi also urged producers outside the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to help balance the oil market, saying it was not up to Saudi Arabia to subsidise higher-cost producers and that circumstances required non-OPEC to cooperate.

"Going forward, I hope and expect supply and demand to balance and for prices to stabilise," Naimi said. "Global economic growth seems more robust."

The comments are a further sign OPEC's top producer is sticking to its policy to defend market share. 

Last month, Naimi signalled satisfaction with developments, saying he saw oil demand growing and that markets were "calm".

Oil was trading just above $60 a barrel on Wednesday, up more than 30 per cent from a near six-year low close to $45 on January 13.

Prices collapsed from $115 in June due to oversupply, in a decline that deepened after Saudi Arabia and the rest of  OPEC nations at a November meeting refused to cut output.

At the meeting, Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies argued that the group needed to ride out lower prices in order to defend market share against higher-cost shale oil and other competing supply sources, rather than cut output.

Officials from Russia and some other non-OPEC nations held talks with OPEC ministers on the sidelines of the meeting. But no agreement on cutting supply was reached, OPEC left its output steady and prices fell further.

Oil's drop has hurt smaller OPEC members and hit Russia's economy hard. 

Some in OPEC continue to lobby for output cuts and an emergency OPEC meeting, and last month Igor Sechin, the head of Kremlin-controlled energy giant Rosneft, criticised OPEC for destabilising the oil market.

But Naimi on Wednesday said Saudi would not act alone and he was not aware of any plans for a special OPEC meeting. The next OPEC meeting is not until June.

"In cooperation with many countries, we have moderated production levels to improve the market situation. But now the situation is different. We need every major producer to cooperate," he said.

"It makes absolutely no sense for the most efficient producers to be the ones to cut production when we are only 30 per cent of the producers," the minister added.

He defended OPEC's November decision and said Saudi Arabia would not cut its output unless buyers asked for less.

"In November, OPEC made a historic decision, it did not interfere in the market. I think history will prove that this was the correct path forward," he added.

AMMAN — The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) announced Tuesday in a press statement that it is providing a $30 million loan to MS Pharma Ventures W.L.L. to finance the production of new generic pharmaceutical products.

"Locally manufactured medicines are scarce in Jordan and in the wider region of the Middle East and North Africa. The bank’s investment will contribute to the commercialisation of these products and improve access to the latest generation of pharmaceutical products in the region," the statement said.

It added: "The EBRD loan will help the company to upgrade and expand its manufacturing facilities, increase its capacity and produce specialised products for chronic illnesses such as cancer, or cardiovascular, central nervous system and respiratory diseases."

Heike Harmgart, EBRD head of office in Jordan, said: "Supporting MS Pharma, in line with the bank’s strategy to promote innovation, will contribute to the development of Jordan as a pharmaceutical manufacturing hub in the region and will help boost the production of vital medicines.”