His Majesty King Abdullah urged the Jordanian young dynamic sector to take the lead in economic growth and promised to help this sector get the needed partnerships worldwide to raise its productivity in vital economic sectors such as IT, tourism and industry.



Addressing the Jordanian Entrepreneurship Conference in its second day at the Dead Sea resort on Sunday, King Abdullah said "During the next few weeks, I shall be challenging our young dynamic private sector to take the lead, in identifying sector strategies, and specific
plans in IT, tourism, manufacturing, healthcare and automotive industries."



"I shall promise in return to dedicate my meetings in Davos, in Malaysia, in the United States and elsewhere, to secure that they get the right audience and that they have the chance to establish the needed partnerships to raise the productivity of these sectors," said King Abdullah before participants in the conference organized by the Jordanian Young Entrepreneurs Association(YEA) in cooperation with the Planning Ministry and supported by the U.S. Agency for International Cooperation (USAID) and its program AMIR, and the EU-funded EJADA program in Jordan.



The three-day event aims to instill the spirit of initiative, excellence and creativity as well as to create the most appropriate environment to promote Jordan as a hub for entrepreneurship.



Jordan is the only country in the region that "has demonstrated positive economic performance, despite the regional political uncertainty and conflict," King Abdullah said."



This competitive advantage is the result of the comprehensive reform strategies that were adopted a few years ago, and that are now being implemented, all aimed at stimulating growth," the King added.



However, King Abdullah said" We are lagging behind, in terms
of micro economic performance, and we all know that it is at this
level that wealth is created. Company operating practices , the quality
of inputs, and the skills of the labor force are the needs for ensuring
competitiveness and to deal with this, we must ensure that while we
strive to maintain macro economic stability, there is a need to encourage
productivity growth at the micro and sectoral levels, and this can
only be done through education, openness, initiative and innovation,
subjects that will be captured in you discussions today and tomorrow."
The conference would certainly assist in drawing up these strategies
and in focusing all our minds to help encourage a new culture of entrepreneurship,
the King added.


The Jordanian Entrepreneurship Conference opened Saturday,
entitled /Coordinating Talents and Celebrating Success" with the participation
of leading figure in academia and business and Jordanian entrepreneurs
to exchange view on Jordanian business projects.


The conference is "designed to raise awareness in Jordan on
the importance of entrepreneurship among the private sector, the public
sector and our young citizens and to create a common mindset," said
head of YEA Laith al-Qassem.


"The input from the participants will be used to develop recommendations
to help enhance our environment, to harness the creative and optimistic
energies of our young population," Qassem said.


"This is just the start of a long process...and we will follow
up meetings next year or the year after to evaluate our progress as
a nation," he added.


He thanked King Abdullah for patronizing the conference describing
him as "the prime mover behind the changing face of Jordan."