Jaghbir calls on investing Jordanian industry’s ‘untapped’ opportunities

Amman: Jordanian industry has "large" opportunities at the local and foreign levels in all its production sectors, which would make a "positive" difference in indicators of the national economy if invested, according to a stakeholder. Over the past years, Jordanian industry has witnessed "remarkable" activity in the production and export process, which opened markets "never seen earlier," and its products "successfully" reached the markets of 142 countries globally, Head of Jordan and Amman Chambers of Industry, Fathi Jaghbir, said. The Kingdom's industrial sector owns "numerous and diverse" production facilities across the Kingdom, amounting to 18,000 establishments, including 16.2 00 craft entities and 1.8,00 industrial businesses, while the annual growth rate in the number of establishments reached 0.3% since the past decade, he pointed out. According to Jaghbir, the "latent and untapped" opportunities are concentrated in the Kingdom's food and catering, pharmaceutical, chemical, packaging, and wood and furniture industries sectors, in addition to the engineering industries. In remarks to "Petra" Wednesday, he said: "Opportunities lie in increasing the industry's share in the local market, as its annual needs for goods are estimated at approximately JD27 billion." Meanwhile, he noted the Jordanian industry's contribution to it does not exceed 45% and there are about 35% of the total imports from final goods are manufactured locally." Jaghbir added that the industrial sector plays an "important" role within the national economy by contributing directly and indirectly more than 44% of the gross domestic product due to its "qualitative" connections and integration with various other economic sectors. Source: Jordan News Agency