Jordan’s economy and investment climate has been shaken over recent years by unrest in neighboring Iraq and Syria, spiralling unemployment, a debt-to-GDP ratio of 95 percent, and a series of IMF-backed subsidy cuts and tax rises. All this while vital remittances and aid from the Gulf appear to be slowly drying up.

With all the challenges the country is facing, figures indicate the investment environment is healthy and capable of attracting even more foreign interest. But as Jordan’s government realizes the scale of the challenges at hand, it is taking major steps to attract greater levels of foreign direct investment (FDI). As this special supplement lays out, these investor-friendly changes that are being enacted have already begun to bear fruit. According to the Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ), FDI in the Kingdom increased by 7.2 percent in 2017, reaching JD1,182 billion, compared with JD1,102 billion in 2016. Most of these investments were concentrated in the industry and tourism sectors.

The Jordanian government is modernizing several laws, like the two laws approved by the parliament, the amended companies law and insolvency law, to ease economic activity. To learn more about the investment climate, read Venture’s annual investment guide, The Journal, in full.

To read last year’s guide, click here.