Jordan’s Amman Chamber of Commerce has commended Zambia for being among the world’s best reformers with a good rating on ease of doing business.
Amman Chamber of Commerce Chairman, Senator Issa Murad said all countries in the world including Jordan are looking to invest and trade with countries like Zambia with a good World Bank (WB) rating on ease of doing business.
Senator further said Bloomberg’s recent rating of Zambia’s economic growth as among the fastest growing economies in Africa was admirable.
“Zambia is now leading in opportunities and ease on doing business. Congratulations, really I need to just say congratulations and everyone is looking for these numbers,” Senator Murad said.
He made the remarks in Jordan’s capital, Amman, yesterday during a bilateral meeting with Zambia’s Ambassador to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Dr Joseph Chilengi.
The World Bank in its 2018 Doing Business report highlighted that Zambia featured as one of the 10 economies showing the most notable improvement in Doing Business.
Recently, Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief Mathew Winkler said Zambia’s economic growth is among the fastest growing economies in Africa only second to Ethiopia.
Mr Winkler further observed that foreign direct investment from China and others countries helped the rapid and consistent economic growth of both Zambia and Ethiopia.
Senator Murad said although Zambia remains Jordan’s strategic trade partner among African counties, more needs to be done to increase interaction with the Zambia Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ZACCI) to increase the trade volume between the two countries.
“I know that Jordan is very important for Zambia and at the same time Zambia is very important for us for the African market. We will be happy in our future plans to include Zambia in our delegations and we will be indicating this to our Government as well,” Senator Murad said.
He invited ZACCI to visit Jordan to explore ways of increasing the investment and trade levels between the two countries
And Dr Chilengi said Government under the leadership of His Excellency, Mr Edgar Chagwa Lungu, and President of the Republic of Zambia had prioritized lowering the cost of doing business to improve the investment climate.
“Zambia is a transforming economy, which is in a hurry to achieve sustainable industrial and trade growth that will translate into job and wealth creation for the people,” Dr Chilengi said.
He added that Government continues to encourage investment with potential for value addition to domestic raw materials.
Dr Chilengi called on Jordanian investors to invest in Zambia’s priority sectors such as manufacturing, agriculture, agro-processing, tourism, mining, energy, information and communication technologies and infrastructure development, among others.
He also urged Jordanian investors to partner with Government to develop infrastructure such as airports, roads and railway under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) framework.
The Zambian Mission in Turkey covers Jordan, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Macedonia as countries of extra accreditation