AMMAN (JT) - His Majesty King Abdullah on Monday met with representatives of various economic sectors and listened to a briefing on proposals for an action plan to stimulate the economy.

Earlier this month, the King called on the sector leaders to draw up an action plan to enhance the economic performance during his meeting with them.

The briefing included recommendations for taking quick, short-and medium-term measures to stimulate the economic performance in all sectors and activate the participation of the private sector to overcome current challenges according to clear and well-studied plans in order to improve citizens’ living standards.

The proposals, which were presented by Royal Court Adviser Amer Hadidi, included facilitating the hospital accreditation instructions and doubling the share of the pharmaceutical industry in the local market.

They also called for holding a meeting between the Health Ministry, the Jordan Food and Drug Administration (JFDA) and the Jordanian Association of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers to discuss taking immediate procedures to register the largest number of locally manufactured drugs at the administration and re-examine the work of the JFDA medicine pricing committee.

During the meeting, attended by Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit, Royal Court Chief Khaled Karaki and King’s media adviser Amjad Adayleh, the representatives also suggested facilitating the land-border procedures by increasing the number of clearance stations to reduce the hours of waiting before start of the tourism season for Arab visitors.

The proposals included calls to study the possibility of reducing the cost of residential and commercial construction licences and the possibility of increasing the ownership of foreigners, particularly Iraqi investors, and facilitate residency measures and travel visas.

They also called for declaring an area, initially dubbed “the business zone”, that will be a duty-free area, provided employing Jordanians in it from different administrative levels, in addition to continue supporting the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology programme in cooperation with the private sector to provide work opportunities for new graduates in the IT sector.

They called for completing the medical accountability and bankruptcy laws as well as expediting the establishment of judicial chambers (specialised arbitration courtrooms) and exempt a part of the companies’ profits from taxes if they invest the funds in research and development.

The plan pointed out the possibility of reducing mandatory reserves of commercial banks if they increase credit facilities extended to small and medium businesses, in addition to activating the role of the Jordan Loan Guarantee Corporation regarding the guarantees for small-and-medium enterprises.

The representatives also proposed establishing a specialised risk fund to support faltering companies to be run by expertise from the private sector and holding a meeting between the Jordan Enterprise Development and Commercial Centres Corporation, the Jordan Investment Board, the Jordan Tourism Board and the Jordan Hotels Association to unify their marketing efforts and arrive at the best unified and accredited tourist packages.

Proposals included allowing the industrial sector to import industrial fuel and establishing a venture fund to support small income-generating and service businesses through donations from the private sector and form a committee from the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation, Ministry of Labour, the Development and Employment Fund, among others, to come up with proposals for the fund’s work mechanisms and instructions.

The leading businesspeople called for providing the necessary incentives for the Iraqi importing bodies to use the Aqaba Port to import and export Iraqi goods and encourage Iraqi businessmen by simplifying procedures related to trade through Aqaba.

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