Investments benefiting from incentives rise in Q1

By Mohammad Ghazal

AMMAN – Investments that benefited from incentives offered by investment laws in Jordan increased by 174.4 per cent during the first quarter of 2010 to JD686 million from JD250 million during the same period of 2009, according to the Jordan Investment Board (JIB).

According to the official figures, foreign investments benefiting from the Investment Promotion Law amounted to JD160 million during the January-March period of this year compared to JD80 million during the same period of last year.

Meanwhile, local investments reached JD525 million, JIB CEO Nasser Sunnaa told The Jordan Times in a statement Tuesday.

Sunnaa said the majority of investments in the first quarter of 2010 were in the amusement parks sector with JD249.4 million worth of investments, followed by the industrial sector with JD222 million, hotels with JD161 million, hospitals with JD28 million, marine and land transport with JD16 million and the agricultural sector with JD9.2 million.

“The influx of foreign investments to the Kingdom is going through a stage of fluctuations affected by the consequences of the global financial crisis,” the JIB chief noted.

However, he added that the Kingdom started to recover in this regard, stressing that Jordan attracted a variety of “added value” investments since the beginning of this year.

On the implementation of investments attracted to Jordan, Sunnaa said once investments are registered at the JIB, investors are given a three-year period to start implementing the projects according to the Investment Promotion Law.

jordantimes