The Jordanian government has reached a deal with a US company to establish an airport for logistics services in Mafraq, which is located northeast of the capital Amman, close to the Jordanian-Syrian border and on the international road connecting Jordan with Iraq.
Minister of Industry and Trade Yaroub Qudah announced this deal on Saturday during the Silk Road 3 Conference in Amman, organized by the Palestinian-Jordanian Business Forum.
Inaugurating the Conference, Qudah explained that the project is part of a comprehensive plan to enable Jordan to play an effective role in the regional reconstruction projects in the region.
He noted that the government had prepared a plan with the World Bank to render the Kingdom a main platform for regional reconstruction projects, in cooperation with other neighboring countries.
The conference, which was attended by 500 businessmen from 30 Arab and foreign countries, was established in 2011 by numerous business figures from different economic sectors and dedicated to promote investment in Jordan.
President of the Jordan Businessmen Association Hamdi Tabbaa hoped that the conference will succeed in promoting the Kingdom as a regional investment center among participants.
He noted that business entrepreneurship and start-up projects are the major contributors to economic development, while poverty and unemployment are the main challenges in the Arab world.
For his part, Jordanian-Palestinian Business Forum Chairman Talal Al Bau said that the government has produced laws that help provide the facilities needed by local and foreign investors.
He said the presence of businessmen from 30 countries underlines the fact that Jordan is rich in investment opportunities and is an attractive and secure investment destination.
Bau said that the forum, which comprises 250 member businessmen, looks to the Palestinian market as a higher Jordanian interest that has to be supported to get rid of dependency on the Israeli economy, whose annual exports to Palestine amount to five billion dollars.
Khalil Rizq, president of the Palestinian union of commercial, industrial and agricultural chambers, said that Jordan is Palestine’s gateway to the world, noting that achieving economic growth is a main motive behind efforts to enhance the resilience of Palestinians and help them confront Israeli policies.
Investing in Palestine is a religious, national, moral and social responsibility of the private sectors in the Arab and Islamic worlds, he said, calling for holding joint investment projects with the Palestinian private sector.
Rizq urged Jordanian and Palestinian businessmen to increase the volume of trade exchange that stood in 2016 at JD126 million.
