AMMAN, 18 April 2007 — Jordanian and Saudi businesses yesterday set up a $500 million joint fund for carrying out joint ventures in the two countries.
The step came on the fringes of the Jordanian-Saudi economic forum which opened yesterday aimed at boosting bilateral trade and economic ties particularly between the private sectors in the two countries.
At least 50 leading Saudi businessmen are teaming up with leaders of the Jordanian private sector to explore joint investment opportunities.
Opening the meeting, Finance Minister Ziyad Fariz said the Jordanian-Saudi Economic Forum “stands to contribute tangibly to the development of bilateral cooperation in various spheres”.
He noticed that merchandise between Jordan and Saudi Arabia grew over the past few years, reaching about $2.5 billion in 2006.
Saudi Arabia, Jordan’s key supplier with crude and oil derivatives, topped the list of the country’s trade partners in the past three years. Head of the Saudi delegation, Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed, praised the gathering as “an important event that will help boost the trade and investment ties between the two countries”. However, Al-Rashed complaint that economic cooperation between the two states “fell short of ambitions so far”, saying the non-oil trade exchange between the two countries stood at only $906 million.
He called for “serious action” on the part of both private sectors in the two countries to come up with new mechanisms for enhancing bilateral trade and investments.
Al-Rashed, in particular, urged the Jordanian private sector “to benefit from the huge investment opportunities in Saudi Arabia which amount to $624 billion”, mainly in the infrastructure of the newly-launched economic cities in the Kingdom.