Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Knowledge Forum Hosts A Roundtable Discussion on “Investment in Jordan”
Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Knowledge Forum Hosts A Roundtable Discussion on “Investment in Jordan”
Abu-Ghazaleh: Forming teams for trade procedures, investment law and Jordan competitive center
Nsour: These are the challenges of investment and we need a new law
AMMAN --- March 23, 2014 --- The Economic Policy Development Forum (EPDF) held at Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Knowledge Forum a roundtable discussion entitled “Investment in Jordan”. The roundtable was chaired by HE Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, head of the Forum with the attendance of former ministers, senators, ambassadors, businessmen, EPDF members, representatives of international organizations, experts in investment and law, media people in addition to students from Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Graduate School of Business as well as the participation of HE MP Ahmad Jaloudi, Lower House’s Economic and Investment Committee Rapporteur.
HE Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh welcomed attendees extending his gratitude to HE Dr. Maen Nsour, head of the Investment taskforce and his team for their valuable efforts in preparing the final report. He also highlighted the efforts of World Bank and the IFC in preparing the Doing Business report on an annual basis.
He also stated that Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Legal (TAGLegal) contributed to the Doing Business report as one of the 11 international regional contributors.
Attendees received a summary of the report which 48 Jordanian attorneys and legal counsels participated in preparing the economy profile of Jordan.
We distributed a brief of a comparative study of Doing Business in Jordan which has been extracted from Doing Business report 2014.
“Based on the results of the report, Jordan’s rankings on the ease of doing business in each topic of the 10 areas included in the index of Doing Business 2014 out of 189 countries were as follows:
Ease of doing business: 119, Starting a business: 117, Dealing with construction permits: 111, Getting electricity: 41, Registering property: 104,Getting credit: 170,Protecting investors: 170, Paying taxes: 35, Trading across borders: 57,Enforcing contracts: 133 and Resolving insolvency: 113.”
Regarding this, Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh questioned what could be done, and he suggested forming a committee to develop the trade procedures as a taskforce that is part of the EPDF to assess the necessary recommendations for the development of our economic measures and improve our competitive position among the world's countries.
And as an urgent procedure, Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh clarified that a letter will be sent to the Parliament to explain what should be addressed of negative issues in the investment law, and at a later stage a moderninvestment law will be drafted by the experts of the Forum and present it to the concerned parties.
Meanwhile, Dr. Maen Nsour presented the results of the investment taskforce report and the challenges and obstacles in which he explained the importance of investment in achieving social and economic development and the future perspective for the procedures of attracting investment.
He presented the challenges and obstacles to investment in Jordan represented by the weak consistencybetween economic policies and investment policy, in addition to the multiplicity of legislation and institutional frameworks governing those concerned with investment, as well as the need to speed up the endorsement of a new investment law pointing out that the current investment law does not contribute in building an attractive investment environment in the Kingdom.
Recommendations:
· To modernize investment strategies to suit the local, regional and global circumstances and future goals of Jordan and to translate them into practical easy to follow and measure programs which the public and private sectors are able to implement, and to issue a new investment law to standardizereferences of investment and facilitate the granting of incentives.
· Giving priority to economic legislation by the Parliament for approval.
· Renewal ofinvestment incentives and reconsider the sectors benefiting from these incentives, through lower taxes and customs duties
· There is a need for a recognized and approved policyto promote investment, and based on it additional incentive should be set for any of the economic activities.
· The adoption ofa unified strategy for the promotion-oriented operations of investment.
· Linkingmap of investment opportunities in the provinces of the Kingdom with the Governorates Development Fund.
· Provideand update databases for the Jordanian economy and the investment environment needed by the investor.
· The need forrestoring development banks such as the Industrial Bank and the Agricultural Bank to provide soft loans to local investors.
· Special focus should be on Jordanian expatriates abroad, through a clear policy.
Active discussion followed with one of the attendees suggesting a workshop to be organized with the participation of experts in economic, business and services to review Jordan's rank and international indicatorsissued by international institutions and bodies, representatives of these bodies, including the International Finance Corporation, Global Competitiveness Index, the World Economic Forum to be invited to attend..
The EPDF’s Investment taskforce includes: Chairman of the Team: Dr. Maen Nsoor, Team Members: Dr. Basheer Zubi, Dr. Manhal Shotar, Mr. Basheer Salayta, Dr. Mitri Mdanat and Mr. Bilal Hammouri.