Jordan's exports sound alarm amid global economic crisis

Special Report:Global Financial Crisis

AMMAN, March 8 (Chinese media) -- Jordan's exports have sound alarm amid global

economic crisis, especially in the pharmaceutics and garment sectors, local

daily The Jordan Times said Sunday.

Jordanian pharmaceutics have had major markets in Saudi Arabia, Algeria and

central Asian countries, but the sector's major regional and international

markets are going through very difficult conditions.

This would definitely have a negative impact on the volume of our exports

to the international markets, said Hannan Sboul, the Secretary General of the

Jordanian Association of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers (JAPM).

The JAPM has set a plan to push exports towards the

1-billion-Jordanian-dinars (about 1.4 billion U.S. dollars) mark by 2011, as the

country's growth in pharmaceutical exports for the past three years reached 15

to 20 percent.

Jordan's pharmaceutical exports reached 460 million dinars in 2007 and 500

million dinars in 2008, but "this level of exports was not even close to the

association's expectations," said Sboul.

Another sector suffered a lot in the crisis is garment. Dana Bayat, CEO of

the Jordan Garments Accessories and Textiles Exports Association, said the

garments sector is going through a "very difficult time."

"The sector suffered at the beginning of 2008 from increased production

costs due to a hike in oil derivative prices at that time, and later in the same

year, the sector was hit by the global economic recession," she said.

Bayat called on the government to help the garments and textiles industry

in the kingdom, warning that "the government must decide whether it wants this

sector or not."

Mining exports are also expected to suffer. Jordan's rock phosphate has

dropped to 115 U.S. dollars per ton free on board Aqaba, which is a record low,

according to the FMB Group Weekly Phosphate Report.

Though Prime Minister Nader Dahabi told a meeting last week that some local

manufacturers expect their exports "to double" this year, JAPM chief Sboul noted

that "it seems that the global economic downturn will be a major obstacle to

such an ambitious plan."

According to data released by Jordan's Department of Statistics, the value

of national exports went up by 37.7 percent and the reexports by 29.4 percent in

2008 compared to the numbers in 2007.

Meanwhile, the value of imports rose by 23.2 percent during 2008, leading

to a 14 percent rise in the deficit in the trade balance in 2008 compared to

that in 2007. (1 U.S. dollar = 0.708 Jordanian dinar)