81266057 — Consultants for the ‘Business Licensing Reforms in the Food Sector in Jordan’

The GIZ project ‘Employment-oriented MSME promotion’ is part of a special initiative by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) to promote stability and to boost economic and social prospects for people in the North Africa and the Middle East region. It supports Jordan's objectives of economic growth and employment creation as laid down in the ‘Jordan 2025 — A National Vision and Strategy’ and the ‘Jordan Economic Growth Plan 2018-2022’. The project engages in four main fields of activity: 1) Improving enterprise competitiveness in selected sectors of Jordan's economy; 2) Enhancing MSME competencies; 3) Improving the business and investment climate in selected sectors; and 4) Supporting women economic empowerment. The project supports the implementation of sectoral and market strategies to boost the prospects of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and the sectors altogether. Important partners are governmental agencies engaged in MSME promotion, business and professional associations as well as the national and local chambers of commerce and industry. To increase its efficiency and effectiveness, the project focusses its activities on three sectors, namely food processing, information and communication technology and tourism as sectors with considerable growth and employment potential. MSMEs are crucial for the Jordanian economy and labour market: of the 160 000 registered businesses in the country, more than 90 % are micro enterprises. By enabling companies to increase their competitiveness and create more job opportunities, the project ultimately targets jobseekers, entrepreneurs and employees of Jordanian MSMEs. A special focus is placed on young people entering the job market as well as women. Improving the conditions under which MSME operate as well as the offer of services and skills they require, should also encourage entrepreneurs to start their own businesses, leading to a higher density of MSMEs and to employment-intensive growth. On an institutional level, the project strengthens the capacities of key partners to provide relevant services and promote policies that improve the business-enabling environment for MSMEs.