Jordan Times
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Women’s role in Kingdom’s
economy growing
By Omar Obeidat
AMMAN –– Over 5,000 job opportunities for women between the ages of 18 and 32
will be created in the second quarter of this year, a Jordan Forum for Business
and Professional Women (JFBPW) official announced recently.
“JFBPW provided training for more than 80,000 women in the Kingdom in the last
four years,” JFBPW CEO Rania Khatib told The Jordan Times during the launching
of a businesswoman’s export guidebook on Sunday.
Organised in cooperation with the USAID-funded Sustainable Achievement of
Business Expansion and Quality Programme (SABEQ), the booklet includes
guidelines for various sectors including marketing, investment and international
business practices.
Senator Wijdan Saket Tal-houni, who opened the event, said the initiative will
open doors for businesswomen to the international market and is part of JFBPW
efforts to build economic life in Jordan. She added that it constitutes a way of
broadening the minds of businessmen and women to target external markets and
help increase domestic exports.
She added that beneficiaries included owners and managers of small-business
enterprises, investors, potential businesswomen, doctors and lawyers and
self-employed women, noting that the forum has signed a MoU with a national
investor based in Dubai who intends to relocate his investments to Jordan.
According to JFBPW studies, women’s participation in the workforce has increased
to 27.8 per cent over the past three years compared to 10 per cent in the entire
1960s.
Over 90 per cent of Jordanian businesses are small- and medium-sized
enterprises, 4 per cent of which are owned by women.
Women business owners and entrepreneurs still face several obstacles such as
gender-related issues, and access to finance and social misperceptions of
working women, the studies revealed.
Khatib stressed that despite the challenges, some businesswomen in the Kingdom
have been working hard to export Jordanian products to international markets.
She noted that a women-owned Dead Sea products manufacturing company
successfully has penetrated the Chinese market.
She indicated over 8,000 businesswomen are registered with the Ministry of
Industry and Trade and that the forum is lobbying to have women involved in the
decision-making process and elected to the chambers of commerce and industry.
The forum, which was established in 1976, is a non-profit business association
with Her Majesty Queen Rania serving as honorary president.