Is Jordan’s workforce ready for emerging opportunities in digital entrepreneurship?
Students attend a class at one of the public schools during the first day after the end of teachers' one-month strike in Amman, Jordan, October 6, 2019. REUTERS/Muhammad Hamed
With job creation stalled in 2019 and further damaged by the pandemic, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is relying on its entrepreneurial zeal to accelerate economic growth. By tapping into its large, tech-savvy youth population, which makes up more than half of its citizens, and its markedly underutilized female labor force (ranked 145 out of 153 countries for women’s economic participation in the latest World Economic Forum 2020 Global Gender Gap Report), Jordan can position itself for dynamic post-COVID economic expansion. Complemented by robust mobile and internet penetration at 87 percent in 2018 and underpinning the commitments in its Vision 2025, the burgeoning information and communications technology and digital sectors are at the heart of Jordan’s entrepreneurial growth vision ably presented in its REACH2025 initiative.