Industry & Retail

Industry is one of the mainstays of the Jordanian economy with the sector producing roughly one fifth of the country’s GDP and employing around one tenth of Jordanians. The success of Jordan’s current strategy to build higher-value-added industries is reflected in the pharmaceutical sector, which has leveraged both the high standard of human resources in the country and the availability of local feedstocks to establish Jordan as a regional leader in the field. The retail sector has undergone a change in recent years with the arrival of global-quality shopping malls. However the pattern of shopping in outdoor markets or in family-owned mixed retail shops has remained largely unchanged, with Jordan’s top five organised retail brands accounting for just 5% of the market. In e-commerce, Jordan has jumped ahead thanks to the kingdom’s advantage in educated human capital, and the market looks set to be worth more than $2bn by 2016.

This chapter contains an interview with Hatem Al Halawani, Minister of Trade and Industry.