CAN YOU GIVE US AN OVERVIEW OF JIEC AND ITS MAJOR ACHIEVEMENT IN THE PAST YEARS?

Jordan Industrial Estates Company is considered the legal successor of Jordan Industrial Estates Corporation, which was established in 1980 as one of the tributaries of the national economy. The Company was converted into a private shareholding company under the Development Zones Law the year 2008. We are all fully satisfied with JIEC’s achievements realized during 2015, and highlighting that these significant achievements contributed to improve and expand the growth of Jordan’s national economy, distinctly the GDP.

 

This has been down to the passion, hardworking environment and efforts of all the successive administrations of the Company and its staff. I am pleased to state that the number of industrial facilities currently established in the JIEC’s Industrial Estates and distributed at all industrial sectors reached to 768 facilities in 2015, comparatively with 734 facilities until the end of 2014. Moreover, exports of Industrial Estates reached JD 1,962 million in 2014, compared to JD 1,192 million in the former year, recording a growth rate of 3%, which represents about 25% of the total exports in the Kingdom. 

 

WHAT IS YOUR STRATEGY TO REINFORCE JIEC’S POSITION AS AN INVESTMENT DESTINATION IN THE REGION? 

Proudly, JIEC within its fruitful process year after a year became a model example to imitate and implement in so many Arab countries, we exported our experiences and services to many countries in the region. JIEC hosted many Arab delegations seeking the bilateral cooperation in the framework title of establishing similar Industrial Estates as in Jordan, benefiting from our long experience which have exceeded a quarter of a century.

 

Meanwhile, in order to improve the competitiveness of our company in the region, JIEC started various programs to construct a renewable source of energy to minimize the costs of producing goods and services, as well as many procedures were made to improve the investment environment, such as the One-Stop Shop, Basic and Ancillary Services, highlighting the new Investment law, which offers incentives and tax exemptions for local and foreign investors. 

 

Moreover, a partnership with the private sector have been established which was a very useful tool in gaining more revenues, growing the economy, and creating mutual benefits; additionally to that, the experience with the private sector proved the necessity of collaboration towards establishing firms and all types of added-value projects.

 

CAN YOU TELL US MORE ABOUT YOUR EXPANSION PLANS AND YOUR VISION FOR JIEC WITHIN THE NEXT FIVE YEARS? 

JIEC succeeded in establishing five Industrial Estates in Sahab, Irbid, Muaqqar, Aqaba, and Karak. We are moving on establishing more Industrial Estates due to our absolute belief that industry is the future of economic growth in Jordan with its positive results.

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WHAT WOULD BE YOUR MESSAGE TO FOREIGN INVESTORS INTERESTED IN ESTABLISH THEMSELVES AT JIEC?

First of all, we would like to assure the best cooperation to enhance and support the ties in most activities that involves commercial, economic and industrial projects. Nowadays, we have five existing Industrial Estates which are designed to leverage the unique investment characteristics of every region, and our action plan for the years of 2015–2017 is to establish another five Industrial Estates in different governorates in order to distribute the development gains in all regions of Jordan.

 

In fact, we have managed to achieve an inclusive growth. This achievement came as a consequence of the business regulations and reforms that were adopted by the Government. We were able to move forward by issuing the new Investment law which fits with investor’s needs and inquiries to achieve success in the manufacturing process. It gives extra incentives and exemptions for local and foreign investors. 

 

In addition, Jordan signed numerous unilateral and regional free trade agreements which gave our national products, services, and goods an access to more than 50 countries around the world and exposed our goods and services in a free market to more than 1 billion customers worldwide. I would like to emphasize that investors will prosper from starting their industrial project in Jordan, which will enrich their business.