Amman, April 23 (Petra) – Jordan’s strides toward economic modernization has been evident in its progress in several international indexes during the first quarter of 2024, according to the 2023-2025 Executive Program of the Economic Modernization Vision’s (EMV) first-quarter report.
The Kingdom progressed in the World Bank’s Women, Business, and the Law report, which evaluates the gap between legal reforms and practical outcomes for women. Jordan’s score surged by 12.5 points, from 46.9 percent to 59.4 percent, surpassing the Middle East and North Africa region’s average of 54.7 percent. This improvement catapulted Jordan among the five nations globally that witnessed substantial enhancements in the index this year, out of 190 countries evaluated.
The EMV’s report attributes this progress to the amendments introduced in Labor Law No. 10 of 2023, marking the first explicit prohibition of gender-based discrimination in worker employment under the law. These amendments resulted in four reforms within the workplace and wage indicators.
Furthermore, the report underscores the initiation of analyzing the outcomes of the revised report, which now incorporates two new indicators: the safety index concerning child marriage, sexual harassment, domestic violence, and femicide, and the child care index. The medium- and long-term work plan for these indicators has been updated to encompass proposed amendments to labor and social security laws after extensive consultations and meetings with relevant authorities.
Jordan’s performance in the Future of Growth report, issued by the World Economic Forum, delineating economic growth across innovation, inclusiveness, sustainability, and resilience axes, has also been highlighted. Jordan scored 45.1 percent in innovation, 53 percent in inclusiveness, 58 percent in sustainability, and 55 percent in resilience axes.
Moreover, the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation conducted a detailed analysis of the newly revised 2024 report, which entailed changes in nomenclature, sub-indices, and calculation methodologies.
Jordan’s ranking in the United Nations Development Program’s Human Development Index advanced from 0.720 to 0.736 this year, reflecting an improvement in the well-being of its populace. Jordan now stands at 99th out of 193 countries, compared to 102nd out of 191 countries last year, further affirming its commitment to enhancing human development.
The government has prepared an index matrix to assess restrictions on foreign direct investment. The matrix evaluates legislative aspects requiring amendments to bolster Jordan’s rank in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s FDI Regulatory Restrictiveness Index, which gauges the restrictiveness of foreign investment rules across four main criteria: foreign equity restrictions, discriminatory screening or approval mechanisms, restrictions on key foreign employees, and operational limitations.
//Petra// AO
23/04/2024 11:55:03
