Free zone trade reached JD6b in 1st 11 months of 2017

AMMAN — Trade volume of public and special economic zones during the first 11 months of 2017 amounted to around JD6 billion, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported on Saturday. 

The Jordanian Free Zones Corporation (JFZC) data showed that the value of exports of public and special free zones during the period amounted to JD3.127 billion, while the imports amounted to JD2.935 billion. The number of investors until the end of November 2017 reached 3,316.

The data also revealed that the amount of exports of public free zones during the first 11 months of 2017 reached JD2.500 billion, mostly in the Zarqa free zone, while the imports amounted to JD2.348 billion, most of which were imports of vehicles (JD1.440 billion).

The data showed that the exports of special free zones reached JD620 million, with the industrial sector receiving the largest share of exports (JD541 million), followed by the service sector (JD22 million) and the agricultural sector (JD17 million). 

Meanwhile, the value of exports of other goods from special free zones reached JD39 million. The data indicated that the total number of employees in public and special free zones amounted 27,500 by the end of 2016, a 4.5 per cent rise compared to the year before, during which public free zones hired 70 per cent of the total number of employees.