His Majesty King Abdullah encouraged on Thursday representatives of Asian and international companies to visit the Kingdom in order to benefit from its investment friendly environment.



Meeting with board chairmen and chief executive officers of several companies on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum Asia Roundtable meeting, the King invited companies operating in the transport, banking, industry, information and communications technology, construction and service sectors to participate in the WEF meetings to be held at the Dead Sea next month.



Finance Minister Bassem Awadallah briefed the gathering on the Kingdom's economic reform process, citing healthy economic indicators including the increase in the Kingdom's 2004 economic growth rate to 7.5 per cent and the drop in the country's debt ratio to the gross domestic product (GDP).



Awadallah underlined the steps taken to liberalize the economy so as to compete in the global market, in addition to the measures undertaken to provide the appropriate infrastructure for investment projects.



He also highlighted the Kingdom's plan to implement a National Agenda.



The National Agenda is a comprehensive reform process which will contain objectives that embody Jordan's overall vision and set programmes, strategies and policies to which successive governments will be committed. The agenda is set to be drafted by September.



Awadallah also stressed the Kingdom's interest in promoting its human resources through educational reforms.



Stressing the Kingdom's political stability and conducive investment environment, the minister highlighted the country's promising investment sectors, foremost of which are the tourism, information technology, pharmaceuticals and mining sectors.



Following the King's meeting with company representatives, Minister of Industry and Trade Sharif Zu'bi highlighted the Free Trade Agreement signed between Jordan and Singapore during 2004, which is due to go into effect next week.



The agreement is the first of its kind signed between an Arab and an Asian country.



The minister said the agreement provides a firm basis from which local and Arab industries can enter the Singapore market.



Zu'bi also expressed the Kingdom's desire to benefit from Singapore's experience, particularly “in terms of its restructure of laws which regulate investment and trade among East Asian countries.”



Arif Naqvi, chief executive officer of Abraaj Capital, a leading equity firm operating in the MENA region, underlined Jordan's healthy investment environment. So far, Abraaj Capital has around $100 million worth of investments in the Kingdom in the fields of aviation, real estate and information technology, in addition to the service sector.

The Jordan Times