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AMMONNEWS - By Abdulillah -The Government seems to understand the need for the private and small business enterprise sectors growth and the implications of this growth in the employment and economic revitalization efforts. However, efforts have fallen woefully low for such a dire economic need.

The government has attempted to streamline the vast red tape that investors used to have to jump through to get licensure to conduct business in the Kingdom; however, money and business development efforts have fallen short. This may be due to the fact that the government is leaving it up solely to the new investors to find the both the income to start the businesses and pay the fees for licensure and any associated taxes as well as developing a market for their services. Unfortunately, the government which is the driver of the economy seems to be doing less as far as spending when it comes to starting the ball moving. That ultimately falls on the government spending on businesses that are needed in the Kingdom.

Businesses such as pharmaceuticals, both for human and agricultural uses, information technology, and biomedical as well as journalistic and fashion industries could benefit from these efforts. I am puzzled why it has taken so long for the Kingdom to have its own auto industry since we have so many drivers etc… who are buying vehicles from abroad at exorbitant prices. Would it not be nice to have a Jordan Tata, or even a parts factory? I am sure the government can start spending not so much on more of the public sector jobs growth but on the private sector which hopefully will employ workers who will end up paying taxes and become major purchasers of other local industries that might grow in response to the needs.

It’s really pitiful to see that most of our government expenditures are not towards this goal. Speaking alone will not drive growth it must be led by government efforts. These efforts could be tax deferment for investors for the first few years, as well as purchasing of government supplies from local markets whenever possible, forcing both good quality and services delivered. It should go without saying that all products and services provided to government institutions should be through local markets through open and transparent government tenders.

BecauseJordan is both a stable and vastly educated country with many speaking more than one language fluently, puts them at a cross road for journalistic growth activity. Think tanks, 24 hour news satellite services, and translators would be another growth area that could be exploited. Major news services now have permanent stations in Jordan why can we not have our own Al-Jazeera or Reuters or CNN?
Without such efforts by the government leading the charge will be what we have today; products and services that are purchased or run from abroad not helping the local market growth.

Government needs to think about the future as well. Like setting up contests where some of the brightest and best ideas, not only focused on talking them up, but actually investing in such startups, in the hopes that they will grow and provide jobs. The money spent goes a long way in keeping the brightest in Jordan and not running off to outside market economies that support such efforts. We need to keep this brain drain of our brightest from growing even more rapidly in the coming years if we want to have a viable economy in the future.

Because Jordan lacks vast natural resources, and vast wealth, expenditures in local enterprise needs to have already begun and we are behind. Realities also need to be understood, that when local wealth grows not only does economic growth happen and the country gets richer, but the fact that the products and services as a result of local demand will get better as well, attracting outside economic tourism etc..
May God Bless Jordan and Its People