The value of Saudi investments in Jordan exceeded USD10 billion in various sectors, including transport, infrastructure, energy, finance and real estate, said Minister of Industry, Trade and Supply, Tariq Hammouri.
At the Jordanian-Saudi business forum held on Monday in Amman and organized by the Jordan Chamber of Commerce in cooperation with the Council of Saudi Chambers, Hammouri stressed that Saudi Arabia is Jordan's top trading partner with the two-way trade exchange between the two countries amounting to USD4.1 billion last year.
The forum seeks to boost bilateral economic ties and search for investment and trade cooperation opportunities among the businessmen.
Jordanian exports to the kingdom reached around 24 percent of the total exports to Arab countries, while the Jordanian imports from the kingdom totaled 17 percent of the overall imports from the world, he added.
Saudi Ambassador to Jordan Mohammed al-Ateeq said that the remarkable ties between the two countries in the economic and investment aspects have continued to the growth of trade exchange to around SAR13 billion (around USD3.5 billion).
He stressed the distinguished relations between the two countries, calling for more focus on promising sectors such as alternative and renewable energy.
Ateeq pointed out that the loans and grants by Saudi Arabia to Jordan through the past decades have helped provide an infrastructure to boost trade and facilitate transport between the two countries -- he urged the Jordanians to exploit the promising opportunities in Saudi Arabia and the giant projects, which arose from the Saudi Vision 2030.
Ateeq underpinned that Saudi Arabia and Jordan have signed several bilateral agreements and they have a Jordanian-Saudi joint committee whose meetings will be held at the end of the year. Further, there are the Saudi-Jordanian Coordination Council and the Saudi-Jordanian Business Coordination Council as well as the joint Saudi–Jordanian Investment Fund established recently.
Head of the Council of Saudi Chambers, head of the Saudi delegation to the forum, Sami bin Abdullah al-Obeidi pointed out that Jordan, especially its human resources, makes it a destination for investment, hoping that the forum will be the beginning for launching joint investments and achieving convergence and networking between companies of the two countries.
