JEBA participates in EU Ambassadors Meeting
2020-07-05
JEBA participates in EU Ambassadors Meeting
JEBA participated in EU Ambassadors meeting that was held by the Delegation of the European Union to Jordan with the attendance of a large number of EU Ambassadors, in which JEBA was represented by Eng. Jamal Badran / JEBA President and Mr. Ali Murad / JEBA Vice President, the following discussion points were discussed during the meeting:
- Review Jordanian Economic performance before Corona Crises, which was unstable in terms of high production costs and high energy prices which affecting the competitiveness of domestic products in favor of foreign goods, in addition to other obstacles such as water shortage, asylum, and market instability.
- Praise the depth of Jordanian – EU relations at various levels, which they are based on mutual understanding and aspirations.
- Jordan is being praised for taking the appropriate measures to minimise the health impact of COVID, which are inspired from the vision of King Abdullah II bin Al Hussein that citizen’s health has absolute priority, but this has come with high costs on the economic front for both Government and private sector. It is expected the country will experience a 30% reduction of revenue collection, JD2.5 billion in economic losses and an increase of unemployment to 22% (from 19.2%). Unemployment is particularly high among the educated youth.
- Mention Some economic effects due to Corona Crisis, which are: Increasing unemployment rate, declining in economic activities, exports, remittances, travel, and foreign investments in addition to the Heavy losses in many economic sectors.
- The announced economic reforms are needed more than ever, to support SMEs and tackle growing unemployment, to absorb Jordanian expats returning from the Gulf countries, to restructure the overloaded public sector (40% of workforce is employed in public sector) and address the needs of refugees.
- Public Private Dialogue (PPD) has been there during and offers some space for constructive collaboration though the feeling is Government could do more and better and engage with different actors that have assessed and suggested specific economic measures. There is still room for more PPD.
- Opportunities are also arising in digitalisation (e-commerce), cyber-security and tourism. Jordan has witnessed a surge in e-payments 5 times higher than pre-COVID. Tourism in Jordan has experienced record numbers in 2019 following efforts to promote the country (note: Jordan has seen a 9% rise in the total number of visitors during the past year, with total numbers reaching 5.36 million in 2019 compared with 4.9 million in 2018). Branding remains weak and collaborative approach from Jordanian institutions is necessary. Support from the EU to help promoting Jordan as a tourist destination would be very welcomed, where Jordan’s success in controlling Corona crisis is considered as an encouraging incentive for this promising sector, mentioning that this success will assist Jordan to overcome the second phase of Corona virus. On the other hands, other sectors such as agriculture and IT would benefit from further investments.
- Point out that Dutch government is currently assisting Jordan by extending various services related to agriculture sectors, calling to benefit from the long- term expertise of Dutch agricultural companies, invest in joint agricultural projects and transfer Dutch expertise to Jordan.
- Assure the importance of create new entrepreneurs, expressing his appreciation to European efforts to consider supporting Jordan business community in these required changes.
- As exports have suffered, the Jordanian factories would benefit from further relaxation of EU's Rules of Origin scheme into sectors/products not currently covered by the new scheme, in addition to their need to assist to find European export markets as well as training and capacity building to SMEs to overcome and sustain their businesses.
- Food for thought: improve coordination between EU bilateral business associations and JEBA. To explore reviving the idea of an annual meeting between business associations, EU Diplomatic Missions and Government to discuss business matters.
- Mention that the Female labor force in Jordan has not been affected particularly due to Corona crisis, explaining that the crisis affects negatively on the Jordanian labor force in general.
- JEBA willingness to unify the efforts of Jordanian business associations in cooperation with EU counterparts and Jordanian government in order to reduce the Corona’s effects on Jordanian economy.
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