Amman: The Kingdom’s industrial sector aspires to increase share of its various products in the local market, based on continued Royal support, official attention in facilitating its business, and their “high quality and competitiveness.”
The Jordanian industries meet approximately 45% of the total needs of the local market, while their exports go to more than 142 countries across the world, relying on trade agreements with multiple international economic blocs.
The industrial sector, which currently produces 1,500 commodities, has 18, 000 numerous and diverse establishments across the Kingdom, including 16.200 craft businesses and 1.800 industrial entities , while the annual growth rate in the number of establishments has reached 0.3% since the past decade, official data showed.
Meanwhile, Economic Modernization Vision (EMV) placed the industrial sector at its top priority by doubling the volume of gross domestic production.
This effort aims to provide 260,000 job opportunities by 2033, and focusing on ”
strategic and promising” industrial sectors to achieve a competitive advantage and increase contribution of exports to overall growth within the sector by a rate ranging between 35% and 65%, according to the EMV.
The industrial sector has many opportunities that are still “untapped,” estimated at $4.4 billion, concentrated in fertilizer products worth $1 billion, and stand at $726 million for chemical industries, clothing at $560 million, pharmaceutical industries at $461 million, and mineral resources at $328 million.
The industrial sector employs about 21% of the total workforce in the Kingdom, about 254,000 workers, of whom about 80% are Jordanians, while it supports about 20% of the Kingdom’s total population after paying wages amounting to JD2 billion annually.
Head of Jordan Chamber of Industry (JCI), Fathi Jaghbir, said the Jordanian industry has “large and huge” production capabilities, as the current production volume of the industrial sector reaches about JD18 billion, which appears as a “major”
exporter of many diverse types of basic goods and materials.
In remarks to “Petra”, he said: “About 65% of the total Jordanian industry production goes to the local market as sales, and achieved a growth of 0.8% in its share locally during the last five years.”
Jaghbir added: “Despite this, this rate does not represent the ambition, size and quality of the industrial sector, especially in light of the great opportunities that still lie ahead in the local market, as approximately 35% of Jordan’s total imports have a local counterpart from the Jordanian industry.”
Jaghbir said, “When looking at the shares of industrial sub-sectors, more than 7 industrial sectors meet the local market’s needs by more than 50%, while some fully fulfill domestic consumption.”
Source: Jordan News Agency