Gov't keen to bring in new investments — PM

AMMAN — Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Omar Razzaz on Wednesday stressed the government's support to current and future investments and said that it is working to attract new capital to boost economic growth and create job opportunities.

During a tour of the Muwaqqar Development Zone, the prime minister said that the Jordan Investment Commission (JIC) has received 139 new investment applications since the outbreak of the COVID-19 crisis, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The prime minister visited Rotografia Jordan, a packaging and film conversion manufacturer that exports about 70 per cent of its production to regional countries and employs 170 to 200 Jordanians.

Razzaz also visited Al Kbous Industrial Trading & Investment Company, a JD55 million Yemeni investment for the production of tea and coffee with an export base of 23 countries. The company employs 150 Jordanians and 20 Yemenis.

Upon the premier's tour to the Quality Carton Packaging Company, considered one of the largest of its kind in the Middle East, he said that the Jordanian cardboard, packaging and food industries now reach many countries in the world, in addition to tea, though it is not grown in Jordan, it is still produced here and exported.

The company, a JD30-million Jordanian investment, produces 5 million cartons per month, of which 60 per cent goes to the local market and 40 per cent is exported, mainly to the US. 

The firm employs 175 workers, almost half of them are Jordanians.

The PM also checked on the production process and talked with workers about their working conditions. 

Minister of Industry, Trade and Supply Tareq Hammouri, the JIEC chairman, chairman of the board of directors of Industrial estates, and the chairman of Jordan Chamber of Industry accompanied the premier during the tour.