President of the Jordanian Businessmen Association (JBA), Hamdi Tabbaa, underscored the importance of enhancing economic and investment ties between Jordan and Turkey during the Jordanian-Turkish Business Council meeting held in Amman. The event was organized in cooperation with the Foreign Economic Relations Board of Turkey (DEIK).
Tabbaa stressed the need to expand trade cooperation and activate the role of the Jordanian-Turkish Business Council in supporting the private sector and promoting mutual investments. He pointed to the solid and long-standing bilateral relations, which have evolved over the past two decades, particularly in the field of economic cooperation.
He noted that trade exchange between the two countries in 2024 reached approximately $1 billion, with Jordanian imports from Turkey totaling about $815 million, while exports to Turkey stood at only $106 million just 12 percent of the total trade volume. He called for redressing this imbalance by strengthening Jordanian exports to the Turkish market.
Tabbaa urged Turkish business leaders to explore investment opportunities in Jordan and intensify coordination and engagement between the two private sectors. He highlighted Jordan’s ongoing implementation of major projects under the Economic Modernization Vision, offering opportunities in key sectors such as ICT, logistics, tourism, industry, agriculture, healthcare, energy, and mining, in addition to public-private partnership ventures.
He added that since its establishment in 1994, the Jordanian-Turkish Business Council has served as a vital communication platform for both countries’ business communities, facilitating economic dialogue, knowledge sharing, and investment promotion.
The Turkish head of the Council, Levent Birant, emphasized the strong economic and trade ties between Jordan and Turkey and reaffirmed the Council’s commitment to sustaining activation of the Free Trade Agreement. He called for building on existing cooperation to deepen business relations between the two countries.
Jordanian head of the Council, Yusri Tahboub, described the Council as a strategic platform for fostering bilateral cooperation and advancing joint ventures. He emphasized efforts to reactivate the Free Trade Agreement with Turkey to align with Jordan’s economic openness goals.
Tahboub said the Council is focused on enhancing investment incentives and fostering the exchange of opportunities in priority sectors, especially industry, medical tourism, energy, and mining.
Salim Dada, President of the Turkish-Jordanian Businessmen Association, said the association was established two years ago to strengthen economic ties and strategic cooperation between the business communities of both countries. He emphasized Jordan’s position as a promising investment hub in the region due to its strategic location, political stability, skilled workforce, and opportunities in renewable energy, tourism, IT, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, and logistics.
He added that Jordan’s competitive advantages and favorable business environment bolstered by free trade agreements with the United States, the European Union, Canada, and several Arab and Asian countries make it a gateway to markets in Iraq and the Gulf.
Aldada also highlighted Jordan’s investor-friendly legal framework, which ensures equal treatment for local and foreign investors and promotes innovation and entrepreneurship.
For his part, Turkish Ambassador to Jordan Yakup Caymazoglu announced that meetings of the Jordanian-Turkish Joint Economic Committee will convene in Amman this October, opening further avenues for cooperation and addressing challenges facing businesspeople.
He noted that both countries and the wider region face shared challenges due to rising costs stemming from developments in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, as well as internal issues in Syria and Iraq. However, he emphasized that these circumstances also present new opportunities for cooperation, particularly given the political alignment between Jordan and Turkey.
Caymazoglu pointed to recent positive developments, including the lifting of US and European sanctions on Syria, which could pave the way for joint Jordanian-Turkish ventures targeting Syrian and regional markets. He expressed optimism about forming a robust economic partnership, citing Jordan’s industrial capacity, strategic investment zones, and customs advantages that support export access to markets in the United States and Canada.