His Majesty King Abdullah on Sunday gave the go-ahead to a strategy to attract investments to the Kingdom, stressing the need to unify all efforts to encourage investments.

During a meeting with ministers and directors of investment-related institutions, the King highlighted the importance of concerted efforts to improve the economic conditions of citizens and create more job opportunities.

His Majesty reiterated that political reform must be accompanied by economic reform. “Institutions must work in the best interest of our country and our people,” the King said, adding that political reform will not proceed as planned if poverty and unemployment increased.

The King called on officials to work to protect the middle class and improve the economic situation of Jordanians.

His Majesty instructed the government to improve the level of services and facilities provided to investors, particularly investors from the Gulf Cooperation Council states, by removing red tape that is hindering the business environment.

He said part of the problems and challenges facing the sector is related to lengthy procedures at various institutions, which impede the work of investors and drive them away, highlighting the need to change this image.

A lot of investors in the Gulf, including ruling family members and sheikhs, came to Jordan to help but ended up complaining of the way work is done in Jordan and of corruption accusations by some media outlets, the King said. “When I ask our friends in the Gulf to come to Jordan, they come because they want to support the Kingdom and the Jordanian people. But today some of them wonder why they would invest in Jordan and get accused of corruption,” added the King.

He directed the government and public institutions to open a new chapter and think about Jordan’s future through a clear strategy to be able to enhance cooperation with the private sector.

He stressed the need to work to promote the Kingdom’s major investment opportunities, attract foreign investments and build a strategic dialogue with businessmen.

“The current regional situation has created several economic opportunities that we must work to make use of in a manner that benefits the country and contributes to attracting more investments,” the King added.

Promoting and marketing Jordan is the responsibility of several parties, His Majesty said, stressing the need to unify efforts in order to have one Jordanian product to promote in the region and the world.

The King urged key institutions to coordinate efforts and focus on devising a strategy for the upcoming tourism season.

During the meeting, Prime Minister Awn Khasawneh expressed hope that concerned departments would increase coordination on investment-related issues, noting that he has received several complaints from the Kingdom’s ambassadors in Gulf countries over the difficulties investors face in the Kingdom. He said the government is working to improve the investment environment.

The premier also stressed the need to accelerate implementation of mega-projects, particularly the National Railway Network project, to enhance economic relations with neighbouring countries.

Khasawneh outlined the outcome of his recent visit to Libya, noting that the Libyan side has a genuine desire to invest in the Kingdom.

He highlighted his meeting with Azeri President Ilham Aliyev on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, during which the latter expressed his country’s desire to invest in Jordan. A senior Azerbaijani official will pay a visit to Jordan to become acquainted with the feasibility studies of economic projects being implemented in the country, Khasawneh said, noting that EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton will also visit the Kingdom this month.

At the meeting, Minister of Industry and Trade Sami Gammoh presented a four-component strategy to attract foreign investments, which he said, declined from $2.6 billion in 2008 to $1.3 billion last year.

In 2011, investors applied to benefit from incentives under the Investment Promotion Law, presenting projects valued at $1.4 billion, of which 63 per cent were in the industrial sector and 19 per cent in the hotels industry.

The value of potential projects in Jordan open for incoming investors is estimated at $6.5 billion, according to Gammoh, who listed some of the projected investments, including a Hungarian plan to establish an oil refinery in Aqaba, a factory to produce phosphoric acid to be set up by the Saudi Bader Group, an international health spa by a Korean investor, and the planned Ammoun medical school.

The minister outlined challenges facing investment attraction, underlining the lack of a unified law that governs the process, in addition to instability in the Arab region, Europe’s debt crisis and the repercussions of the global financial crisis.

The remedy plan seeks to attract job-generating projects of high added value. This can be done, the minister said, through redrawing the investment map to include all opportunities available in governorates outside Amman. Examples include three-star hotels in southern districts, factories that enjoy a competitive edge and private hospitals.

This part of the plan entails efforts to prepare the stage for the emergence of full-fledged industries such as automobile manufacturing. Gammoh said that companies like the India-based TATA are interested in this field.

Other such ideas include silica-related industries in the south, and high added-value industries like ICT, outsourcing, pharmaceuticals, clinical experiments, healthcare, tourism, energy and renewable energy, high-tech farming, manufacturing based on available raw materials such as phosphate, potash and silica.

The second point in the strategy defines the geographic locations of potential investors, including the Gulf Arab countries, US, Canada, Germany, Spain, the UK, France, Turkey, South Korea, China, Japan and India.

The third part addresses the need to change the public mentality in a way that serves investment attraction plans. Planners acknowledge that the “general atmosphere” in the Kingdom adversely affects such efforts, in an apparent reference to thousands of protests the country has been witnessing for more than a year. The same component also addresses the changes that need to be made to legislation governing investments and procedures taken to tend to investors’ needs and complaints.

The fourth component entails a plan to find jobs for Jordanians in the Gulf Arab countries, especially in the fields of services and industry. Gammoh named rescue medics, nurses, medical lab technicians, accountants and auditors, engineers of all specialties and lawyers as jobs in demand.

Meanwhile, concerned ministers took turns presenting developments and plans overseen by their respective ministries.

Tourism Minister Nayef Al Fayez said his ministry is working on removing entry restrictions for certain nationalities to attract more tourists after the sector was hit by the EU crisis in 2011.

Health Minister Abdul Latif Wreikat focused on medical tourism as a major source of income, noting that Arab patients who come to Jordan must receive good treatment, especially since other Arab countries have become competitors in this field. There are currently around 20,000 patients from Libya alone. Reportedly, Libya has recently paid Jordanian health service providers $100,000 to settle financial claims.

Speakers also included Minister of Municipalities Mahir Abul Samin, who noted that the 2007 national master plan has produced 115 investment projects, noting that the comprehensive development plan is key in drawing the map of tourism sites and other projects till the year 2030.