Jordan Times
Thursday, March 11, 1999
Reducing interest rates, production costs top list of private sector demands
AMMAN (J.T.) — ACCORDING TO Hani Al Khalili, board member of the Amman Chamber of Commerce, lowering interest rates in order to encourage investments and activate the industrial and commercial sectors, is one of the imbalances that the new government should tackle to reinvigorate the economy. He also sought higher cash liquidity which he described as “very scarce” at present.
He said the government should address the issue of debts owed by traders to banks through rescheduling the credits, especially those who are well-known, in order to enable them to continue their businesses instead of declaring themselves bankrupt.
Khalili called for upgrading the cadres of the Ministry of Industry and Trade and all the departments and institutions affiliated to it and for computerising the measures at the ministry. He said the government should fight against bureaucracy and set up an independent entity for investment to be directly linked to the prime minister. The entity would facilitate investment procedures from the point of receiving the investor until finalising all the measures, Khalili added noting that that was the process in which Egypt was successful in attracting investor.
“The government should work for signing free trade agreements with Arab countries to expedite operating in accordance with the Arab free trade zone,” the board member of the Amman Chamber of Commerce stressed. Moreover, he called for activating the mechanism of “exporting” Jordanian labour to Arab Gulf countries in order to ease the unemployment problem and replace the foreign workers in the Kingdom with local job-seekers.
Khalili concluded by mentioning the problem between foodstuff traders and inspectors from the Supply Department. In this regard, he called for easing the restriction imposed on those merchants especially the control measures on announcing prices on products which are not under priced by the government.
Mohammad Al Tell, president of the Zarqa Chamber of Industry said: “If the government wants to achieve a real activity in the area of investments it should place as its top priority the transparency in adopting and implementing decisions.”
He stressed the issue of supervision and control as being a main and pressing demand that requires immediate decisions. “The numerous parties entrusted with health, environmental, municipal... etc. controls and supervision create an atmosphere of confusion and discord as each entity carries its work independent from the other,” Tell said. He urged unifying the control and supervision in one institution to prevent harming any economic activity.
Tell emphasised the need to follow a unified tax policy on various industries and investments instead of the different types of taxes that investors have to go through.
Fathi Sughayar, a board member of the Amman Chamber of Commerce, demanded a real support for the private sector through reducing production cost such as electricity, water and fuel charges in addition to interest rates.
He also requested the government to assist in exports and opening new markets for Jordanian products.
He concluded by asking the government to comprehensively review the bases on which the civil service and military consumer corporations were established as the commercial sector is suffering from the unfair competition of the two corporations.