Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - The national Jordanian Phosphate Mines Company and Chinese companies have set up a project to construct JD1 billion ($1.3 billion) venture on fertilizers in the southern city of Aqaba, according to reports on Wednesday.

The Jordan and China's Chongqing Minmetal and Machinery Import and Export Co. (CMMC) signed an agreement to build the industrial complex, with the first phase of the project to be at the cost of $350.

"We are currently in the process of determining the amount of land that we will lease to the two sides for the industrial complex and procedures are going ahead for the implementation of this new significant investment in Aqaba," told the Jordan Times.

Officials in Amman hope the new project would breath life into the struggling company and the fertilizers produced by the industrial complex will be exported to several markets across the world. Thousands of jobs would also be created from the project, helping to absorb numbers of unemployed among the rapidly growing population.