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RIYADH: Jordan’s financial market is set for transformation, with key changes, including introducing government bond trading on the Amman Stock Exchange, revisiting taxes, and listing state-owned companies.

CEO of ASE Mazen Wathaifi outlined the key reforms to strengthen market confidence and stimulate trading activity during a panel discussion hosted by the Jordanian Businessmen Association, according to the state-owned news agency.

The reforms are part of a broader effort to align with Jordan’s Economic Modernization Vision, which aims to enhance the investment landscape.

Enabling government bond trading aligns with regional efforts to deepen debt markets, enhance market liquidity and attract global investment, as seen by ��������Ƶ’s recent reforms to debt instrument listings aim to boost investor participation and market efficiency.

Wathaifi said the steps being taken in Jordan would strengthen market confidence and stimulate trading activity, stressing the role of government policies in fostering investment and trading, adding: “We place significant reliance on government measures and decisions to enhance investment and activity in the ASE.”

The stock exchange has already implemented several initiatives to modernize its operations, including advanced electronic systems, a redesigned website, and a market development plan in partnership with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. 

The Jordan News Agency reported that new tools such as the Total Return Index and electronic disclosure systems have been introduced alongside smartphone apps for real-time market monitoring.

Performance indicators for the ASE in 2024 revealed significant improvement, with the market’s General Index up 2.4 percent compared to 2023, while the Total Return Index surged 10.3 percent. 

The market capitalization of listed companies increased by 4.2 percent, reaching its highest level since 2015, excluding 2022. Non-Jordanian investors held 47.1 percent of the total market capitalization, reflecting robust foreign interest.

Despite these gains, Wathaifi called for additional measures to reduce trading costs, foster investment funds, and encourage participation from banks and the Social Security Investment Fund. 

He highlighted opportunities arising from expectations of declining global interest rates, easing tensions in Gaza, and improved conditions in Syria.

Mohammad Balbisi, vice president of the Jordanian Businessmen Association, echoed these sentiments, advocating for reduced taxes on public shareholding companies and the elimination of taxes on capital gains from stock and fund trading. 

He also underscored the importance of public-private partnerships to drive large-scale development projects through the ASE.

Participants at the discussion highlighted the increasing regional competition to attract financial market investments, urging the government to introduce incentives, reduce fees, and restrict government bond trading to the ASE to draw global funds to Jordan.

DAVOS: The tourism sector in ��������Ƶ, which has undergone a transformative shift in recent years, must continue to grow with sustainable practices front and center, according to the country’s tourism minister.

Speaking at a media briefing on Monday attended by Arab News at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Ahmed Al-Khateeb said it was vital the tourism industry embraced a sustainable agenda if it was to continue its upward trajectory without impacting natural environments and the communities living in them.

The Kingdom has been working with major global organizations, including the WEF, UN Tourism, and the World Travel and Tourism Council in order to achieve this, the minister said.

Al-Khateeb was speaking ahead of the launch of a WEF briefing paper on the future of the travel and tourism sector, as well as a new on investments in the sector, which showcases ��������Ƶ’s position as one of the fastest-growing tourism destinations globally.

He emphasized that the Kingdom was approaching sustainability from three key perspectives: environmental, economic and social. He added that focusing on the environment alone would not garner satisfactory results.

He said: “People travel to explore other peoples and cultures and to enjoy nature and the environment. If we don’t protect the environment, presented by nature, people will not travel. We need to ensure sustainability across all sectors — environmentally, economically, and socially.

“In 2019 we commissioned a study with the WTTC and Oxford Intelligence to analyze the sustainability of our industry, which revealed that our sector contributes to about 8 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

“While this isn’t as high as initially feared, it’s still a concern. If we don’t come up with the right tools to reduce this in the best-case scenario, or at least maintain this, with the very high and fast growth of our industry in the next decade, we’re afraid this number will double to 15 or 16 percent in the worst-case scenario.”

The Kingdom has already begun addressing these concerns by launching campaigns to reduce food and water waste, in conjunction with hospitality chains like Hilton and Marriott. And in 2023 it spearheaded initiatives such as the Sustainable Tourism Global Center, working with international organizations like the UN and the WTTC to promote responsible tourism practices worldwide.

From the economic perspective, Al-Khateeb highlighted how important small and medium-size enterprises were to the sector, making up 80 percent of the global tourism industry.

Ensuring the viability of these SMEs was crucial as the sector grows, especially thanks to their job-creation potential, he said. This was increasingly the case for women, including in ��������Ƶ where a milestone 25 percent of tourism sector jobs in 2023 were held by females, he added.

��������Ƶ continues to place a strong emphasis on supporting SMEs and entrepreneurs, which includes initiatives to train and support the next generation of tourism leaders, with 100,000 Saudis being trained annually through a partnership with UN Tourism, Al-Khateeb said.

He added: “We’ve funded over 1,500 small businesses through the Saudi Tourism Development Fund over the past two years, and we continue to make the sector more attractive as a viable business opportunity for entrepreneurs.

“I am very optimistic. We want to further promote the sector, for it to prosper and to grow. We want to make this sector more important in ��������Ƶ, and we took a decision to invest in the sector to open it up.”

With the value of the global tourism industry expected to grow to $11 trillion by 2030, Al-Khateeb said that ��������Ƶ recognized the importance of both government and private sector collaboration, adding: “(Governments) design, but (the private sector) implement, they invest, they take the risk.”

He added: “The private sector is very important in our industry: It’s run by the private sector and we believe and we know in ��������Ƶ how important it is. That’s why we invited the private sector for the first time to join the G20 meetings held in Riyadh, and since then they have been joining all of them.”