Business

AMMAN — The Business Development Centre (BDC) announced on Wednesday in a press statement that a memorandum of understanding was signed this week between BDC and the Prince’s Trust International in order to implement the “Get Into” pilot programme that aims at addressing the skills and experience gaps, which prevents unemployed young people from entering the job market, with a focus on community college students.

Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, announced the launch of the “Prince’s Trust Get Into Programme” in Jordan that will be implemented by the Prince’s Trust International in partnership with BDC, King Abdullah II Fund for Development and Injaz, where youth will receive intensive training on employability skills and hands on field experience in the private sector.

Peter Millett, British Ambassador to Jordan, re-iterated the commitment of the UKAid and Prince Charles’ Trust in supporting skills for employability and entrepreneurship training programmes in Jordan. 

AMMAN – Arab banks should extend a wider share of their credit facilities  to small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) due to their role in improving socio-economic development, banking experts said Wednesday. 

Speaking at the Arab Banking Forum, they stressed the importance of finance diversification to cover economic and social sustainable development schemes.

The forum, organised by the Union of Arab Banks (UAB) in cooperation with the Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ), the Association of Banks in Jordan (ABJ) and the World Union of Arab Bankers, focused on the precautionary measures and good practices in crisis management.

CBJ Governor Ziad Fariz acknowledged  that Arab central banks are "aware of the importance of increasing credits to SMEs due to their role in capital investment, providing work opportunities and contributing to the overall economic growth". 

He said that world economic and financial crises and political unrest pose huge challenges on the Arab banking industry, adding that impediments should be addressed through enhancing the capabilities of banks to deal with risks and shocks.

Fariz added that CBJ established a financial stability department in 2013 to draw up monetary policies in order to maintain financial stability in the Kingdom. 

In addition, the bank formed a committee last year to draw up a comprehensive and effective plan to manage banking crises, which aims to prevent the impact of any financial crisis on the national economy, according to the CBJ governor. 

Noting that the bank's risk management instructions are in line with the principles of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, the governor said the CBJ continues to ensure the effectiveness in improving the financial institutions' crisis management and governance skills.

 ABJ Chairman Basim Salem noted that the global financial downturn has exposed organisational shortcomings in the world financial system, indicating that the CBJ along with other Arab central banks have took a series of measures to cope with the developments on international practices governing risk management.

UAB Secretary General Wissam Fattouh descibed the performance of the Arab banking sector in 2014 as "distinctive" compared to 2013, pointing out that the Arab banks' assets grew up by 10 per cent last year, reaching $3.1 trillion. 

He indicated  that customers' deposits in Arab banks stood at $2 trillion in 2014, while facilities provided to different economic activities amounted to $1.7 trillion, nearly 60 per cent of the Arab gross domestic product. 

On the other hand, Fattouh said the lack of economic and political will in some Arab countries, especially in relation to financing SMEs and combating unemployment is a major concern.

"The share of finacing for SMEs does not exceed 10 per cent of the total facilities provided by the Arab banking institutions," he said.

LONDON — The oil sector is restructuring after the collapse of oil prices and opportunities may emerge for larger players wishing to snap up distressed companies and expand into crisis-hit producer countries, according to key industry players.

An oversupply of oil in the market, caused by the boom in crude extracted from US shale rock, has contributed heavily to crude prices crashing 60 per cent in value in the six months to January.

In response, the oil sector has begun to reorganise, as it has done every ten years on average. Big oil companies have begun to slash capital spending for the coming year. French multinational Total recently revealed a 30 per cent cut in its exploration budget.

But the current environment still provides a chance for them to possibly buy smaller struggling rivals at bargain prices, suggested participants at the recent International Petroleum Week in London.

'Vultures gathering' 

In the United States, small producers have been hit particularly hard.

"There is an enormous [cash] liquidity squeeze in the US as we speak and it will come to a crescendo in the middle of this year," indicated Anthony Hayward, chief executive of Anglo-Turkish producer Genel Energy.

This will mean "a lot of distress" among small operators in US shale, but will create growth opportunities for those with capital and capacity, said Hayward. "The vultures are gathering." 

Opportunities are also emerging globally, including in Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) producers Iraq and Venezuela, which will need funding to bridge the shortfall in their revenues from collapsing oil prices.

"For the major companies, this is now a great time of opportunities, those who are brave will seize the moment and will be able to acquire very good assets at knocked down prices," Hayward added.

Norwegian oil major Statoil also sees the drop in oil as a source of opportunity, particularly on the trading side.

"I think it is challenging for an upstream company like Statoil to cope with these changes," said Rune Bjornson, senior vice president at the company.

"But at the same time, especially on the market and trading side which is becoming more and more important, it gives the market new opportunities," he added.

For Ian Taylor, head of oil trading giant Vitol, the oil sector may be overlooking the demand side of the story.

"We had an incredible year of growth last year, a two million barrel per day (bpd) of non-OPEC increase in production... and we are all forecasting we are going to get another million barrels per day of growth this year," Taylor said.

"However the real story that we are not talking about very much in the industry is the other side of the equation: demand," he added.

Taylor is unsure whether demand will rise to meet soaring production levels. He was not convinced by analysts' predictions of growth in demand by a million bpd or more this year, after forecasts for 2014 proved too high.

"We are all trying to work out when the US production is going to slow down," he said. 

AMMAN – Jordan Enterprise Development Corporation (JEDCO) and the European Union (EU) delegation in Jordan on Tuesday signed an agreement for the second tranche of a grant to finance the last phase of the EU-funded Jordan Services Modernisation Programme (JSMPII).    

According to a statement issued by JEDCO, the grant was around 3.2 million euros with an expected investment volume of about 5.7 million euros.  

JEDCO said 51 new and already established companies in the services sector in various governorates are projected to create 535 employment opportunities. 

The signing ceremony was attended by Industry, Trade and Supply Minister Hatem Halawani and Tarja El Idrissi, head of trade, economic affairs and private sector development section at the EU Delegation in Amman. 

Halawani said the government will work on supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through boosting their technical, administrative and production capabilities to achieve their development goals. 

Idrissi said it is an EU policy to support the development of the private sector, and in particular SMEs, as they are key players for inclusive growth  and for the well-being of local and regional communities. 

"We keep private sector high on the agenda in our relations with  Jordan. Support for SMEs, vocational education and training and development of poorer regions are at the core of our support," she added. 

Hana Uraidi, JEDCO acting chief executive officer, said the corporation through JSMP II has extended financial support worth 20 million euros to 369 companies in all governorates with an investment volume of 31.8 million euros. 

The projects, supported by JEDCO, are expected to create 2,144 job opportunities when completed, Uraidi noted, adding that a total of 135 projects were owned by women. 

JSMP II is an EU-funded programme focusing on the development and modernisation of the services sector.

BERLIN/LONDON — Europe's airlines are racing to add Wi-Fi to their planes, eager to attract Internet-hungry customers in a cut-throat short-haul market and potentially add millions of dollars of revenue through entertainment, services and advertising.

US airline passengers already have a chance of accessing Wi-Fi on 66 per cent of miles flown, against a worldwide average of 24 per cent, according to data from Routehappy, which rates flights worldwide on amenities such as seats and entertainment.

In Europe, adoption of a ground-to-air service such as that in the United States, is harder due to the number of countries in the region, while satellite-based services have been too costly for short flights.

But with more satellites being sent up, bringing costs down, and airlines more aware of the money-making possibilities, price is no longer such a stumbling block, industry watchers say.

Lufthansa, Air France-KLM, Ryanair and Vueling are some of the major European carriers looking at on-board Wi-Fi on short-haul flights, following low-cost carrier Norwegian, which offers it for free on 74 of its 76 Boeing 737s.

As well as potentially charging passengers to stream TV shows and music on their mobile devices during flights of a couple of hours or less, airlines can use onboard connectivity to offer restaurant bookings, shopping or hotel offers in conjunction with advertisers and partners.

"Nowhere else in the world do you get that captive audience where you know everything about the people that got on the plane and what kind of advertisements you should offer them," said Robin Cole, vice president for global business development at Global Eagle Entertainment, which provides satellite-based Wi-Fi for airlines Norwegian and Southwest.

Global Eagle is due to trial a fee-paying system on two Air France A320s this summer in conjunction with mobile firm Orange, and believes the retail and sponsorship opportunities of onboard Wi-Fi could boost industry revenues by hundreds of millions of dollars a year. 

Becoming a basic need 

According to AT Kearney consultant Rene Steinhaus, the revenue opportunities are attracting attention across the European industry, with low-cost carriers particularly quick to move. 

"There's a huge logic to having Wi-Fi on board, even in Europe," he said.

Ryanair will use advertising or other revenue streams to ensure Wi-Fi access doesn't add to its costs, Chief Executive Officer Michael O'Leary said, adding it had begun talks with mobile phone companies over charges, and with technical companies over fitting the lightest possible aerials for the lowest cost.

In the United States, moves by low-cost carriers such as JetBlue to offer basic onboard Wi-Fi services for free were putting pressure on mainline carriers, Routehappy data research manager, Jason Rabinowitz, said.

Britain's Inmarsat, which partners with Honeywell to offer Internet onboard using its satellites and the US company's hardware, currently has over a 9 per cent share of the commercial cabin connectivity market.

"It's growing faster than anything else in the space that I can think of. Almost every airline in the world is asking about it right now," Jeff Sare, Inmarsat's vice president for airline market development, told Reuters.

Another company that stands to gain is Panasonic-owned AeroMobile, which provides mobile coverage within the aircraft via satellite for a fee that appears on a customer's usual mobile bill. 

Marketing and revenue development director, Jack Gordon, said it expected to announce a deal with a major European short-haul carrier this year.

Lufthansa Systems, whose BoardConnect platform provides in-flight entertainment and connectivity on shorter flights, expects airlines will have to offer Internet onboard within the next two to four years.

"Costs for data transfer are falling rapidly and customers are putting pressure on airlines," said Norbert Mueller, head of BoardConnect. "Wireless Internet has become something of a basic need."

AMMAN — Jordan Phosphate Mines Company (JPMC) generated a JD18.2 million net profit last year compared to JD2.6 million in 2013, the company announced on Monday.

Gross profit before tax and provisions in 2014 amounted to JD22.6 compared to JD6.7 in 2013, according to a JPMC disclosure to the Amman Stock Exchange.

Data showed that assets at the end of last year increased to JD1.2 billion, compared to JD1.1 billion at the end of 2013.

Shareholders equity rose to JD780.3 million from JD762 million while net operational income increased to JD739 million from JD574 million in 2013, due to higher production efficiency. 

RIYADH — Lateefa Al Waalan just wanted to make Arabic coffee simple: no more labourious mixing of ingredients and careful attention to boiling.

Supported by a Saudi programme to foster, or "incubate", technology-based businesses with high growth potential, she developed a machine to produce Arabic coffee at the push of a button — the first of its kind.

In the process, Waalan and her Yatooq company became emblematic of efforts to diversify the oil-dependent kingdom's economy and employ more Saudis, particularly women.

Yatooq is one success story from the business incubation programme, known as Badir [meaning "to initiate"], but it's not the only one.

After hitting the market in 2013, Yatooq has grown to employ 15 people with another 75 on contract.

"The factory is completely run by women," Waalan said at the Riyadh plant where she directs operations from her laptop and telephone in a spartan office.

Women covered from head-to-toe in black, as is the custom in Saudi Arabia, handle administrative tasks in an adjoining office while the coffee is roasted and ground on large machines in another room.

Her business was driven by one idea: "I love coffee but it's very complicated. I want to make it simple."

John Mercer, an Australian consultant to Badir, calls Waalan's success story "quite stunning”.

Badir helped Walaan create a prototype in its industrial lab and provided legal, accounting and other advice as well as valuable connections.

Traditional Arabic coffee blends the ground beans with cardamom and saffron, giving the liquid a yellowish hue.

It takes about 30 minutes to brew in a home kitchen before it can be savoured, typically accompanied by dates.

Yatooq's innovation was a type of electric kettle that uses patented computerised technology to brew with consistent quality a ready-made blend of ingredients.

"We wanted to make a machine that you can press a button and then make the coffee without you needing kitchen equipment and so on," said Waalan, 30, who comes from a computer science and information technology background.

She declined to discuss revenues but indicated that the machine is now available in about 80 per cent of electronic retailers, is moving onto the shelves of more supermarkets and exported to neighbouring Gulf countries as well as the United States. 

'Massive impact'  

Badir is also proud of Ahmed Khalaf and his Stability Laboratory, which last August became the first private lab accredited by Saudi Arabia's Food and Drug Authority to test pharmaceuticals, along with other products.

His licence is posted proudly on the door of his lab at Badir's biotech incubator on the sixth floor at King Fahed Medical City in Riyadh.

British-educated Khalaf said Badir gave him "full support in many, many things" including idea-development and problem solving.

The Stability Laboratory already employs four staff with masters degrees and is turning a profit.

It is among 82 businesses at various stages of incubation with Badir, from start-up to revenue-producing.

Several others including Yatooq have "graduated" and are operating on their own, Mercer said.

Incubation also includes help for budding enterprises to develop their business models, install the right management teams and get funding.

Badir offers free laboratories, office space and even support for prototype development from its own workshop with three-dimensional printers and more traditional tools like a lathe.

With four incubators throughout the kingdom now, Badir plans to expand and broaden its focus from the current sectors of advanced manufacturing, biotechnology and information technology.

Its economic role in the world's biggest oil exporter is, for the moment, tiny but Badir is focused on longer-term impact, said Mercer.

"It's only a small part but it has a massive impact over time," he added. "Because what you've done in incubation is set a foundation for that company to grow".

The fall by roughly 50 per cent in global oil prices last year has left Saudi Arabia projecting its first budget deficit since 2011.

This has emphasised the need for economic alternatives, and the diversification effort is expected to continue under new King Salman who acceded to the throne in January.

'Things are changing' 

Badir "is probably the best example" of a local effort to tap the dynamism of dedicated and talented Saudis, belying stereotypes which labelled them as lazy or only want to work for government, a diplomatic source said.

The programme was set up five years ago by King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, the national science agency.

The government has since intensified efforts to bring into the workforce more Saudis, including women who have traditionally faced cultural barriers to employment in a conservative Islamic country where the sexes are strictly segregated and women are not allowed to drive.

Millions of foreigners in Saudi Arabia still do everything from management to construction.

Analysts say government efforts have boosted the employment of locals.

But Saudi Gazette columnist Khaled Almaena has blamed rampant "bureaucracy, red tape and complacency" for limiting the role that small and medium-sized businesses can play.

"In most countries these businesses constitute 80 to 85 per cent of the economy," though not in Saudi Arabia, he wrote.

But some things are changing, said Waalan, who sees in the kingdom a growing recognition of business people.

"Now more than ever, it's very cool to be an entrepreneur", she added.

ISTANBUL — From the outside, it looks like any other automatic bank machine on the streets of Istanbul. But rather than notes, this one distributes small pieces of gold.

Gold is hugely prized in Turkey not just for ornamentation or investment by banks but as a secure way for private individuals to hold their savings.

Many people in Turkey, which has one of the lowest private savings rates among major economies, keep gold as security for a "rainy day" rather than products offered by banks.

According to estimates, Turks hold some 3,500 tonnes of gold. Banks have sought to capitalise on the tradition by offering accounts denominated in gold.

"We were thinking about putting all that gold back into the financial system somehow, so we decided to create gold accounts for our clients," said Seda Yilmaz, marketing manager of the Kuveyt Turk Bank, the first to do so, in 2007.

"So we bought one kilogramme of gold, and the demand on the first day was three kilogrammes. It was a very good decision, so we decided to move ahead," he added.

Eight years on, Kuveyt Turk manages 200,000 gold accounts with different products allowing sales by cheque, bank transfer or mobile phone.

Now with the introduction of the first automated teller machines (ATMs) that issue gold as well as the usual banknotes, consumers can withdraw pieces of gold weighing 1 or 1.5 grammes.

The success of the ATMs started a trend, with many other Turkish banks latching on. The volume of gold in their reserves has gone from two tonnes in 2007 to 250 tonnes.

The government has also tried to join the bandwagon with the central bank allowing commercial businesses to hold some of their reserves in gold and opening this up to private investors.

"Thanks to this measure, our sales jumped 85 per cent last year," said Aysen Esen, head of a leading gold refinery in the country.

"Over the last two years, banks have taken in some 40 tonnes of gold that people had stashed under their beds. And it's just a small proportion of the reserves,"  he added

'Huge opportunity' 

Turkey, where the mythical Phrygian King Midas turned everything to gold and Trojan King Priam was said to amass his gold hoard, has historically been a centre for gold mining.

The first gold was mined in Anatolia several millennia before the birth of Christ but until recent years there had been a long break in extraction.

This changed in the 1980s with new legislation facilitating foreign investments, resulting in the discovery of new gold deposits at home.

The extraction of gold has since risen exponentially, from two tonnes mined in 2002 to 33.5 tonnes in 2013. A bright future is assured, with underground reserves estimated at 6,500 tonnes.

"The main reason for this boom is that we still don't have any tax on gross gold transactions, we only pay VAT (value- added tax) on finished products," said Ali Bulut, the chief executive of Turkey's number one gold retailer Altinbas.

"I'm very optimistic in the long run about domestic demand, not only for fashion and jewellery but also for savings," he added.

Even if exchange rate variations have an effect on activity and profits, Turks are the number four global consumers of gold and number two exporters.

"In 2013, recycling, fabrication and consumption [of gold] boosted the Turkish economy by at least $3.8 billion," indicated Alistair Hewitt, author of a recent report published by the World Gold Council.

"The opportunity is huge. We are only at the early stages here, there is a huge potential," he said. "It's looking very, very exciting... all that infrastructure allows Turkey to become a gold trading hub within the region."

Made a little jealous by the successes of banks in a market that they once had to themselves, Turkish gold jewellers staked their interest in joining the gold investment industry.

"We are a little bit disappointed. We may need new legislation and have this gold end up with the jewellers instead of the banks," said Sarp Tarhanci of the Istanbul Chamber of Jewellery.

"Jewellers are customer-based, they build trust and good relationships with their clients," he added.

Turkey's performance in 2014 remained strong, according to the latest figures published by the World Gold Council, even if purchases were down on the extremely strong 2013.

2014 demand for gold jewellery of 68.2 tonnes in Turkey was down 7 per cent, "slightly more resilient" than the overall global trend of minus 10 per cent.

Meanwhile, investment demand of 54.8 tonnes was 46 per cent below the previous year's 102.1 tonnes record.

Separately,concerns are growing over the health of the Turkish economy, long seen as a star performer among emerging markets, partly due to unorthodox statements by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on economic policy that have rattled investors.

Turkey's economic success of the past decade has been one of the pillars of the undefeated electoral success of Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP), with robust foreign investment and solid growth rates.

But economists now fear Turkey could be heading for an era of much lower sub-3 per cent growth as the AKP loses its reformist zeal ahead of June legislative elections, and Erdogan concentrates powers around the presidency after moving from the job of prime minister to head of state in August.

Moreover, Erdogan has become embroiled in a sometimes farcical row with the central bank, repeatedly telling the nominally independent institution in ever more heated terms to aggressively cut interest rates despite plus 7 per cent inflation.

His comments unnerved markets and Turkey's already embattled lira last week, for the first time, fell in value to the 2.5 lira against the dollar.

"At the moment, it's not clear whether this is posturing ahead of the election or more serious. But it does raise more general concerns about institutional independence in Turkey," William Jackson, senior economist at the Capital Economics Consultancy in London, told AFP.

'Undermining the future'  

Erdogan has in particular raised eyebrows by suggesting that high interest rates lead to high inflation, a suggestion that flies in the face of all economic orthodoxy which assumes that lowering interest rates increases inflation by raising consumer demand.

"Interest rate is a cause and inflation the result. But some of our friends think it is vice versa. What is the logic behind this?" Erdogan said before leaving on a trip to Latin America last week.

Central Bank Governor Erdem Basci, who has stood defiant in the row with Erdogan, pointedly noted that high inflation is detrimental to growth and "the best contribution to growth from a central bank would be to maintain price stability”.

Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan, one of the few top AKP figures with the full respect of markets, meanwhile warned about making exchange rate policies the "subject of daily political polemics".

Erdal Saglam, economics commentator for the Hurriyet daily, said that Erdogan's approach was "undermining Turkey's economic and political future" by risking scaring away the foreign investment that is key to its economic success.

In a sign of the tensions, the Taraf daily said Babacan had threatened to resign over the growing influence of Erdogan's adviser Yigit Bulut but was talked out of it by colleagues.

The whole issue is coming to a head as Turkey presides over the Group of 20 (G-20) of top economies for the first time. Babacan last week chaired the first meetings of G-20 finance ministers and central bank chiefs. 

'Miracle over'  

Turkey under Erdogan was long seen as a poster child for economic emerging market success, but these days the country is lumped into the so-called "fragile five" emerging markets along with Brazil, India, South Africa and Indonesia, which have become overly dependent on foreign investment.

"It's fair to say that the 'economic miracle' seen during the 2000s has come to an end," said Jackson. "Unless there's a drastic improvement, I would be surprised to see the Turkish economy grow at rates of 3 per cent plus for a sustained period over the coming years."

The consolation for Turkey in a tricky economic period is lower oil prices, a boon for an economy which is a major energy importer with one of the largest current account deficits among emerging markets.

The current account deficit fell 29 per cent to $45.8 billion in 2014 thanks to lower oil prices, the central bank indicated Wednesday.

Fitch Ratings said the figures showed the economy's "capacity for rebalancing" but warned its resilience "may be tested in 2015" by tighter US monetary policy or geopolitical risks.

Turkey still has a long way to go to meet Erdogan's much-vaunted ambition of making it one of the world's top 10 economies — currently it is number 18 according to the World Bank — when the 100th anniversary of the modern republic is celebrated in 2023.

A report on global growth published by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) last week said that Turkey's income gap with the upper half of OECD countries "continues to narrow but remains large".

It called for reform to encourage formal employment in particular among the older generation and women, many Turks are employed illegally due to excessive regulation, as well as improvements to the inconsistent education system.

AMMAN – Arab Potash Company's (APC) net after-tax profit reached around JD100 million last year compared with JD131 million in 2013. In a disclosure to the Amman Bourse, the APC indicated that gross profit came at JD110 million in 2014 compared with JD148 million in 2013.

AMMAN — One hundred and nineteen industrial and service projects in Jordanian governorates will be receiving JD53.4 million in financing, following endorsement from the Governorate Development Fund (GDF).

According to a Ministry of Industry, Trade and Supply statement e-mailed on Sunday to The Jordan Times, the projects are expected to create 3,312 jobs when completed at an estimated JD115 million investment value.

The statement indicated that the GDF financing will benefit 100 new projects and  help expand and upgrade 19 ongoing schemes. 

Karak topped the list as JD14,146,257 will finance  21 projects that are expected to create 1,043 job opportunities, with an investment volume of JD23,974,799.

Tafileh came second as JD3,724,031 will finance 19 projects that are expected to create 295 jobs, with an investment volume of JD10,855,766.

Irbid ranked third with 13 projects slated to receive JD6,523,739 in financing. The projects, expected to provide 322 jobs, carry JD11,970,864 in overall investment.

In fourth place, JD5,037,816 will finance Maan's 13 projects that carry JD8,415,356 investment volume and expected to provide 277 new jobs.

Balqa's 11 projects, estimated to have a JD20,252,176  investment volume and to create 481 employment opportunities, will benefit from JD7,095,257 in financing.  

Madaba's 10 projects, valued at an investment volume of JD7,551,632 and projected to provide 196 new employment opportunities, are to receive JD3,460,483 in financing.

The GDF approved JD685,998 in financing for Ajloun's nine projects whose investment volume was projected at JD1,198,139 with 71 new jobs.

Mafraq came in eighth place with seven projects carrying an investment volume of JD6,983,465 with 171 new jobs. Financing was set at JD3,813,285.

Jerash ranked ninth with seven projects whose investment volume was estimated at JD2,380,218 with 74 new employment opportunities.

Four projects in Amman will get JD4,461,500 in financing. With  an investment volume of JD12,471,000, these enterprises were expected to create 184 jobs.

Zarqa came in eleventh place with three projects that were projected to provide 150 new employment openings. With an investment volume of JD7,209,992, the enterprises will receive JD1,926,043 in financing.

Aqaba trailed the list with JD1,458,665 in financing for two projects, whose investment volume was estimated at JD2,450,235 with 48 jobs.

Also on Sunday, Industry, Trade and Supply Minister Hatem Halawani attended the ceremony held to celebrate signing agreements of the last phase of the European Union-funded Jordan Services Modernisation Programme (JSMPII) run by the Jordan Enterprise Development Corporation.

This phase, which includes 51 new and old service companies, carry a financing volume exceeding 3,44 million euros, with a total expected investment reaching around 5,79 million euros.

These projects are expected to provide 484 job opportunities in Mafraq, Jerash, Ajloun, Zarqa, Madaba, Tafileh, Karak, Maan and Aqaba, due to the importance of the service sector that contributes to 67 per cent of the national gross product.