Minister urges Balqa youths to benefit from SME loans

AMMAN — Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Imad Fakhoury held a workshop in Balqa on Tuesday to raise awareness of available financing, the ministry said in a statement. 

The workshop was part of a government campaign to familiarise people with the soft loans, financing, and consultative windows available at national credit corporations in the governorates to finance priority local enterprises, the ministry said in a statement.

The government is working to raise the awareness of civil society institutions, national finance institutions, women and youths about the importance of small- and medium-sized enterprises and the finance facilitations provided by national credit institutions with simplified conditions, Fakhoury said.

The government will replace guest workers with domestic labour, especially in sectors like agriculture, construction and services, which have the lowest participation of Jordanian workers, the minister noted.  

The government is working to raise the proportion of Jordanian workers in these sectors to 25 per cent by 2018, he added.

The government has launched a new programme worth JD25 million through the Development and Employment Fund to provide soft loans to young people to establish productive businesses, he explained.

The minister also outlined the achievements of the development programme in Balqa, noting that the government is set to spend JD91 million on projects in the governorate in 2016.

He added that JD150 million and JD200 million have been earmarked for projects in the governorate, some 35km northwest of the capital, in the 2017 in 2018 budgets respectively, and a local government team would identify priority projects.

The population of Balqa stands at 491,709, according to the 2015 census.

The government is aware of the importance of curbing poverty and unemployment, Fakhoury said, explaining that these projects are in line with the government’s executive programme to address economic and development issues.