Jordan jumps 29 places in World Bank’s Doing Business 2020 report

AMMAN — Jordan has been placed among the world's top ten improvers in implementing business-climate-improving measures in the World Bank’s 2020 business rankings.

For the first time, Jordan is classified in the annual report as among the top business climate reformers in the MENA region with three major reforms: Introducing a new secured transactions law, amending the insolvency law and launching a unified, modern and notice-based collateral registry.

"This year, the region hosts four of the world’s top 10 improvers: Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain, and Kuwait. These countries account for almost half of the region’s reforms. The United Arab Emirates remained the strongest performer overall in the region, placing 16th (out of 190) on the ease of doing business rankings," according to the report.

Prime Minister Omar Razzaz hailed Jordan's ranking in the report as the "beginning of the road" to economic growth. 

In a tweet on Thursday, Razzaz said that Jordan has jumped 29 ranks in the report, placing 75th from 104th on the ease of doing business ranking in 2018.

"This advancement will have a positive impact on attracting investments and creating job opportunities," Razzaz said, adding that the government will launch a set of measures on Sunday to reduce production costs, stimulate investments and create job opportunities. 

Minister of Planning and International Cooperation and Minister of State for Economic Affairs Mohamad Al-Ississ described Jordan’s new ranking as “one of the biggest jumps in the history of the Kingdom in regards to ease of doing business”.

In a press conference on Thursday, Al-Ississ said that the annual report is of prime significance to investors and business owners and is also a testimonial document of the reforms countries can achieve in improving business climate.  

The minister said that the government will continue working on improving the business climate in Jordan and in undertaking more endeavours towards improving the economy and achieving the envisioned growth. 

“The government’s priority is to increase growth rates, create jobs and improve services,” the minister said. 

According to the report, the region’s economies collectively focused their reforms on getting electricity and protecting minority investors, with 40 per cent of the countries in the region reforming in these areas (eight reforms in each).

“Overall, the region performs the best in the areas of paying taxes, getting electricity and dealing with construction permits … Similarly, entrepreneurs in the region need to complete 16.5 payments on average to comply with their fiscal requirement, compared to 23 globally.”

According to the Doing Business report, barriers against women are still widespread in the Middle East and North Africa, with 13 of the region’s economies imposing additional procedures for female entrepreneurs to start a business.