The Middle East

ICT is one of Jordan’s fastest growing industries and penetration rates for internet and mobile phones remain high. Strong growth was recorded in 2013 in data services and smartphone sales, with 38% of the country’s mobile phone users owning a smartphone. The tech start-up sector is a leader in the Middle East but, while Jordan has been able to produce a large, skilled IT workforce, it has...

Tourism accounts for 14% of Jordan’s GDP, with receipts in 2014 up 10% year-on-year. Efforts are under way to diversify Jordan’s tourism offerings with an emphasis being placed on religious tourism, aimed particularly at visitors from East Asia, while Jordan’s medical infrastructure remains one of the country’s most valuable tourism assets with the World Bank ranking Jordan the top medical...

Jordan’s banking sector, with its diverse array of financial institutions, continued to perform robustly over the past year. In the first half of 2013 non-performing loans dropped to their lowest level since 2009 while the Islamic financial services segment has continued to grow, increasingly seeking out business from small and medium-sized enterprises as well as from the retail sector. In May...