Ammon News -

Minister of Labor and Minister of State for Investment Affairs Maen Qatamin said that there are still gender and geographic gaps that hinder women's economic empowerment and participation.

In a recent Zoom-powered meeting on female business owners in the services sectors, the minister underlined the need for establishing a comprehensive database on women employment.

During the event organized by the Jordan Forum for Business and Professional Women, in cooperation with the Center for International Private Enterprise, Qatamin indicated that some services sectors are still not ready to accommodate and adapt to the fourth economic revolution and digital transformation, which, he said, are priority issues in the next stage.

He noted that the government had provided a credit line of JD350,000 to support youth entrepreneurship in the ICT sector across the Kingdom in the governorates, and earmarked JD200 million to maintain the jobs of 180,000 Jordanians.

Vice President of the Jordan Chamber of Commerce and the representative of the services sector, Jamal Al-Rifai, stressed that the service sector has been severely affected by the repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic, noting that this sector accounts for a third of the country's gross domestic product and employs more than 17 percent of Jordanians.

During the symposium, the results of a study carried out by the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ) were highlighted, revealing that that the consultancy sector was one of the largest employers of women in Jordan at 38 percent with a JD262 million contribution to GDP in 2016.