Ammon News - The Jordan Industrial Estates Co (JIEC) on Sunday floated a tender to implement the first phase of Zarqa Industrial Estate (ZIE) on an 1,116 dunum area, which houses the ZIE's industrial facilities on a 22,000sqm land, located 30km to the east of the central city of Zarqa.

In a statement on Sunday, JIEC Director General, Omar Juwaid, said start of construction works in the ZIE's first phase comes in the context of the government's economic priorities programme (2021-2023), aimed at bringing about development in various regions countrywide and providing more job opportunities for Jordanian youth.

The tender was floated, after JIEC had completed the project's necessary studies, which included environmental impact assessment, and updated ZIE's necessary designs, Juwaid said.

According to the plans, ZIE's implementation will include three phases to be built over the estate's total 2,500 dunum area, he noted, adding that the first stage is scheduled to be completed within two years, after the executing company kicks off operations.

In addition, he said the project seeks to making Jordanian industrial estates the "ideal" investment environment, by providing incentives and support services to investors to facilitate their businesses.

Juwaid also stressed the importance of establishing the ZIE in Zarqa governorate due to its strategic location, on highways linking Jordan with the neighboring countries of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and its geographical proximity to many industrial investments in the Zarqa city.

In addition, Juwaid referred to worker abundance and ZIE's proximity to housing and service facilities, which constitute an incentive for all industrial investments to start their businesses in the Zarqa city and benefit from the investment incentives.

Once ready, ZIE would attract many industrial investments in many productive fields, such as the foodstuffs, chemical industries, packaging and engineering businesses, he noted.