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Ammon News - Local producers working in the plastic and rubber sector in Marka, east of the capital, said energy, which accounts for 40% of their business costs, overburdens their "advanced" industry and limits its ability to compete locally and abroad.

In a meeting organized by the Eastern Amman Investors Industrial Association (EAIIA), the producers said the sector, which has suffered from the Covid-19 pandemic-induced consequences, is facing "fierce" competition from neighboring countries, which are characterized by "low production costs and indirect protection for their products."

Noting the challenges, some neighboring countries are working to impede entry of Jordan's products from plastic industries to their markets and impose additional fees on them, while Amman allows plastic deliveries enter the local market without restrictions, according to an EAIIA press statement issued on Saturday.

Speaking during the meeting, EAIIA's head, Muhammad Zaki Al-Saudi, said the continued Covid-19 pandemic has "exacerbated the industry's crisis, which has ravaged the private sector industrial and commercial businesses."

Al-Saudi called for supporting industrial sectors, which employ more than 250,000 workers, and export to 140 countries worldwide, by providing cash liquidity to factory owners to counter the pandemic, maintain production and meet financial obligations.

On action to enhance Jordan's economic sectors, he demanded concerned authorities to protect the local product from "unfair" competition and stop the policy of "dumping" markets with imported products, with a Jordanian alternative featured by "high quality and affordable prices," especially the plastic, rubber, food, and chemical industries.