IFC signs three agreements with government to support private sector

AMMAN — The International Finance Corporation (IFC) on Wednesday said it is ramping up its support for Jordan’s private sector and helping the country implement its “ambitious” Economic Modernisation Vision, with the signing of three agreements.

The new initiatives, developed in partnership with the government of The Netherlands, will help foster women’s participation in the workforce, promote green buildings and boost entrepreneurship, especially for women and refugees, according to a statement to The Jordan Times.

The first agreement, signed with Jordan Kuwait Bank, aims to help 50 nurseries adopt good practices and access finance by providing technical advice on how to improve their policies to secure high-quality and safe childcare and on how to build their capacity to attract investments.

The project will also support childcare startups by creating an “innovation hub” to improve their business models and implement good practice standards to secure high-quality and safe services. This initiative is also supported by the Mashreq Gender Facility, which is in partnership with the governments of Canada and Norway, according to the statement.

The second signing, with Jordan’s Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship, aims to address barriers for entrepreneurs and foster their growth by uniting two flagship initiatives — Jordan’s National Entrepreneurship Policy and IFC’s Scale Mashreq.

Scale Mashreq is a three-year programme supporting over 150 startups in Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq. It aims to equip entrepreneurs, including refugees and women, with education, training, and advice to develop and pursue their ideas, according to the statement.

The third agreement aims to promote green buildings in municipalities across the country through a partnership with the Cities and Villages Development Bank (CVDB), the state-owned bank that provides financing for development projects in all cities and villages.

Through this agreement, IFC will help CVDB improve policies and regulations to incentivise municipalities to build green and will also build their capacity to adopt green building practices using tools like EDGE, IFC’s software application which helps calculate and reduce the environmental impact of buildings, the statement said.

IFC also stated that all three agreements are in line with Jordan’s 10-year Economic Modernisation Vision, which was launched in 2022 to double GDP growth to $82 billion by 2033, attract $42 billion in investment, and create one million new jobs.

The agreements were signed on the sidelines of the visit of the World Bank Group President Ajay Banga to Jordan to strengthen strategic partnerships and accelerate development outcomes to continue to improve lives in the country, according to the statement.

Over the last fifty years, IFC has invested more than $2 billion across sectors in Jordan and helped create and preserve more than 18,000 jobs per year, including more than 3,300 for women. Since 2010, IFC has doubled its investments in the country and recently transformed its Amman office into a regional hub, serving 15 different countries.

IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets. We work in more than 100 countries, using our capital, expertise, and influence to create markets and opportunities in developing countries.