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Ammon News - The Jordan Enterprise Development Corporation (JEDCO) on Sunday launched a programme to enhance service SMEs’ export for the first time with a total cost of JD625,000 and a total investment of JD1.250 million, according to a JEDCO statement.

JEDCO’s CEO Bashar Al Zu’bi said in the statement that the commercial and services sector is an important partner, and an essential feature of the national economy, as this sector contributes 54.5 per cent of the gross domestic product.

The main objective of this programme is to expand the base of exporters, increase the rates of exports and open new export markets, according to the governments’ priorities, as this is the third programme that targets the Jordanian service sector during the years 2019-2020, said the statement.

Zu’bi pointed out that the programme “Supporting Service SMEs to Export for the First Time”, which will start receiving applications on Sunday, aims to support 25 local SMEs, who haven’t previously exported or its exports did not exceed JD30,000 and its total revenues JD70,000 during any of the previous three years.

The statement said that the programme targets SMEs operating in the tourism and hospitality sectors, administrative, financial and legal consulting, training, and health and care, engineering and architecture services and information technology in all governorates.

The value of the grant does not exceed JD25,000, of which 60 per cent goes to support production capabilities, while the maximum contribution to the programme reaches 50 per cent of the total costs eligible for an investment of no more than JD50,000, the statement said.

Zu’bi said that the programme seeks to increase the added value of products and services to beneficiary companies and create100 new jobs.

Specialised committees will be formed from JEDCO for the initial administrative evaluation to ensure that the submitted applications to the programme are evaluated with complete transparency. The top 60 requests are invited to attend specialised training on export and how to make export plans, he said.

The companies that have passed the administrative evaluation attended training courses will be invited to submit the second stage application along with export plan and the project budget, which will then be subject to the second stage of technical evaluation, according to the statement.

Field visits will be carried out to companies that passed this stage and then choose the best 25 companies to grant, he said.