Relations between Jordan and China are excellent at all levels. They are improving a year after year with the continued efforts of the leaders and peoples of both countries. Historically, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the People’s Republic of China established their Diplomatic relations in 1977. These relations have been developed into a strategic partnership during the official visit of His Majesty King Abdullah II Ibn Al-Hussein to China in 2015, and China became an important trade partner of Jordan; where the annual trade volume between both countries reached around $3.2 billion dollars.

The government of Jordan is looking forward to succeed in adopting the One Belt-One Road Initiative, which the Kingdom supported during the 15 May 2017 Forum.  A bilateral MoU is ready to be signed between Jordan and China on the implementation of this Initiative, which, hopefully, will support the 2025 development vision of the government of Jordan to enhance Jordan’s economic development. The government is looking forward to continue its cooperation with Chinese companies while implementing its plan to develop the Kingdom’s infrastructure; which includes developing water, sewage, electricity and renewable energy sectors. It’s worth mentioning here a couple of positive indicators of cooperation; which are the establishment of a power plant to  generate electricity by exploiting oil shale in the Attarat area in Jordan, as well as Jordan’s membership of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

Jordan is a center for regional business in the Middle East because of its geopolitical situation. For this reason it continues to develop its transportation infrastructure for a better connection with regional countries. We take into consideration the importance of the One Belt-One Road Initiative in this regard.

We call on Chinese companies to invest in the Kingdom; where they will benefit from Jordan’s foreign investment concession incentives, as well as from the international and bilateral trade agreements Jordan signed with International economic blocks, and bilaterally with other countries. The IT sectors and the opportunities in investing in Aqaba are examples to follow with regard to foreign investments in Jordan. Chinese companies are encouraged to invest in garment, chemical, plastic, cables, renewable energy and medicine industries in Jordan. The government of Jordan is also ready to cooperate with related Chinese companies in railway construction in the Kingdom.

We encourage Chinese companies to embark on partnerships with related Jordanian companies in this regard. Jordan encourages Chinese tourism companies to increase the number and volume of tourism, medical tourism and tourists to Jordan.

Jordan’s strategic location allows for access to over one billion consumers. The Kingdom acts as a gateway to neighboring and global markets through its modern transportation system and strong communication networks. The Kingdom’s membership in the (WTO) ensures access of Jordanian goods and services to 161 world markets. In Addition, Jordan has Free Trade Agreements with the United States of America, Singapore, Turkey and Canada.

A set of key investment reforms have been implemented to facilitate foreign investments in Jordan in all sectors. The reforms included investment incentives and tax exemptions, ensuring strong banking and financial institutions, education excellence and labor market, development of free zones, widening market access, easing of doing business, developing the infrastructure, and enhancing the quality of life in the Kingdom.

Regarding entrepreneurship and innovation in Jordan. Nowadays, both public and private sectors pay more attention to entrepreneurship and innovation as a means of self-employment, and factors of economic growth; which are built on genuine self-efforts and advanced technologies.

Jordan paid attention to entrepreneurship since the eighties of the last Century, when the government established funds for financing small businesses for young men and women, depending on new business ideas to help self – employment in the country.

The real entrepreneurship march in Jordan began in 1995 with the support of the “Jordan River Program”, and the establishment of many  “Business-Associations and programs” which aimed at helping in providing financial, technical and administrative support to establish self-employment productive projects.

In 2004, the government of Jordan established the “Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship” as a nonprofit organization. It aimed at backing technical entrepreneurship in the Kingdom. The Center has been embedded within the “Princess Sumaya University for Technology”. Since its establishment, it has been working on developing entrepreneurship through what is called the “Technical Entrepreneurship Initiative”; which focuses on interconnection, awareness development, training, support, and finance.

To summarize the efforts of both the public and private sectors in initiating and supporting entrepreneurship in Jordan, I can say, today there are more than 250 institutions, projects and programs that are dealing with entrepreneurship and innovation in Jordan.

The joint public and private efforts to support and facilitate the growth of the entrepreneurship environment, made it grow to a satisfactory level. A couple of recent studies confirmed that Jordan is one of the best Arab countries regarding the development and success of entrepreneurship and innovation sectors.

With regard to the types of entrepreneurial businesses in Jordan:

· 65% of entrepreneurial start-ups specialize in digital and artificial intelligence, employment guides, Weather Forecast, financing of SME’s, online medical services, trade services, retail, restaurants, social services and entertainment,

· While 26% specialize in construction, manufacturing industry, transportation, telecommunication and whole sale.

· 3% specialize in excavation activities, which include agriculture, arbor, mining and fishing.

· 5% specialize in trade services which include insurance, financing and real estate.

· 25% of start-up business owners believe they are providing new products and new services to their clients in the medical employment and entertaining fields.

Entrepreneurship and innovation started in Jordan in the early eighties of the last century, where both the public and private sectors provided many initiatives to support them; knowing the importance of both in mitigating unemployment, and in supporting the economy during its first steps, at that time, towards opening to globalization and Free Market.

One of the main aims was to back Small and Medium enterprises and make them a backbone of an economy which was prone to the incentives and difficulties of WTO regulations, FTAs and trade barrier removals. We understood at that time the importance of preparing the economy to live up to the challenges of international competition. We succeeded in some of our efforts. We failed in others. However, we understood the importance of continuous revision and adjustment of our policies regarding trade, entrepreneurship and innovation to be able to continue our march of openness and socio-economic development within a framework of a globalized world.

Jordan is looking forward, in cooperation with China, to achieve better and advanced levels of cooperation in all sectors. Such efforts, I believe, will lead to more practical measures to sign and implement more agreements within the framework of the “Belt and Road Initiative”. All the indicators are positive, and I believe both Jordan and China are sincere and eager to reaching goals of mutual benefits. I would also like to reassert that Jordan has a welcoming and a conducive environment for business-start-ups, which I encourage you to embrace.