Industry Minister: Private sector accounts for 70 percent of GDP

Amman, Minister of Industry, Trade and Supply Youssef Shamali pledged Saturday that the government will address hurdles facing the commercial and service sectors in the Kingdom.

He told a meeting with the president and members of the Jordan Chamber of Commerce that the private sector is a strategic partner of the public sector as it accounts for 70 percent of GDP, adding that the sector rose to the challenge during the Russia-Ukraine war.

The minister pointed out that the road map set out by His Majesty the King to modernize the political system, which resulted in constitutional amendments, the new parties and elections law and the launch of the economic modernization vision, also focused on investment and the unemployment of one million Jordanians in ten years, at the rate of 100,000 annually.

Shamail, who is also labor minister, commended the private sector’s support of the national employment strategy to address unemployment, a large part of which, he said, was due to the failure of disciplines to meet labor market needs. He called for forming sectoral committees to identify problems and propose solutions.

He pointed to a study to legalize and correct the status of foreign workers that allows them to move from one sector to another, which, he said, will be referred to commerce chambers shortly for consultation.

Source: Jordan News Agency