Muhannad Shehadeh, Minister of State for Investment Affairs in Jordan, expects the Kingdom to attract more foreign direct investment flows in 2018, witnessing an increase in investments by 5% in this year, after years of regional turmoil.
Foreign direct investment grew by 7.2 percent in 2017 accounting for 1.182 billion dinars (1.66 billion dollars), from 1.102 billion dinars a year before.
Minister Shehadeh explained that "Jordan's recovery since 2016 goes against the regional trend, which is witnessing a decline in local and foreign investments in the Arab region," denoting that "the political situation has greatly affected the investment map." He added "Foreign investment in the Arab world declined last year, despite of which there was a rise in Jordan's FDI,” pointing out that "they are currently working on the development of the Mafraq area which is considered as a logistics area providing services to the bordering areas."
He also expressed the following, "We hope that the “Nassib” border crossing Syria will open, but this is a political and security decision, while trade with Iraq has quadrupled since the opening of the “Main Trebil” crossing, last year."
Source (Reuters News Agency, Edited)
