Jordan Launches a 35 Million Euro Programme to Support 370 Industrial SMEs and Lift Competitiveness
Jordan has launched a 35 million euro programme to strengthen its industrial sector and support small businesses, in a fresh push to turn manufacturing into a bigger engine of growth and exports. The Ministry of Industry, Trade and Supply unveiled the “Leadership in Industry” programme on Sunday, funded by the German government and delivered through the Industrial Development and Support Fund, with the aim of supporting 370 micro, small and medium-sized industrial enterprises, improving competitiveness, boosting exports and creating jobs. At current exchange rates and the dinar’s dollar peg, the 35 million euros is equivalent to about 39.9 million dollars, or roughly 28.3 million dinars.
The support is structured as non-refundable grants scaled by company size: up to 25,000 dinars for micro-enterprises, 50,000 dinars for small enterprises and 100,000 dinars for medium-sized firms. The grants are designed to crowd in private investment rather than simply cover running costs: a 100,000-dinar grant covering 70 percent of a medium-sized firm’s eligible project costs supports an investment of about 143,000 dinars, and at the 80 percent coverage available to women-linked projects the same maximum grant supports a project of about 125,000 dinars. The Fund will cover up to 70 percent of eligible project costs, rising to 80 percent for businesses owned or managed by women or that create jobs for women, and 10 million euros of the package, about 28.6 percent or roughly 8.1 million dinars, is ring-fenced specifically for women-led businesses through technical and logistical support. The design is deliberately tilted toward the smaller end of the economy and toward widening women’s participation in industry.
A track record behind the expansion
The programme builds on a Fund that has already delivered measurable results. According to the ministry, the Industrial Development and Support Fund has received more than 2,500 applications and supported 635 companies, whose sales rose by more than 30 percent and exports by around 40 percent, while helping to create more than 4,100 jobs, an average of about 6.5 jobs per supported company that, while not a forecast, offers a useful benchmark for the new programme’s potential reach. The 370 firms now targeted are equivalent to about 58 percent of the 635 already supported, making this a material expansion rather than a marginal addition. The ministry also revealed preliminary understandings with the World Bank to secure around 60 million dinars in additional funding for 2027 to 2029, which combined with the current package would create a financing envelope of roughly 88 million dinars and more than double the resources available for industrial upgrading over the next three years.
Why industry is the right target
The sector context explains the priority. Industry contributed about 24.3 percent of Jordan’s GDP in 2025 and nearly 45 percent of the country’s economic growth last year, and national industrial exports reached about 9.6 billion dinars, roughly 92 percent of total national exports, while the sector has created more than 262,000 manufacturing jobs in recent years. The Jordan Chamber of Industry noted that more than 90 percent of the Kingdom’s industrial establishments are small and medium-sized enterprises that need continued financing to expand. The programme is aligned with Jordan’s Economic Modernisation Vision and its Industrial Policy 2024-2028, and it is the product of nearly three years of cooperation between Jordan, Germany and the World Bank.
Why it matters
For a small, energy-importing economy that runs persistent external deficits, building a more competitive and export-oriented industrial base is a structural priority, and targeted financing for SMEs is one of the more direct ways to get there. The focus on smaller firms matters because they dominate Jordan’s industrial landscape and are the most sensitive to financing and operating-cost pressures, so grants that cover most of project costs can unlock investment that would otherwise stall. The emphasis on women-led businesses also addresses one of the region’s persistent gaps, low female participation in the formal economy, with a concrete financial incentive rather than a general commitment. For the wider MENA region, the programme is a template for how a smaller Arab economy can combine external development finance, in this case German and World Bank support, with a domestic industrial policy to lift exports and jobs at a time when regional tensions are weighing on tourism and services.
Outlook
The test will be execution and scale. The current 35 million euro programme is modest relative to the size of Jordan’s financing needs, but the Fund’s earlier results on sales, exports and jobs suggest the model can deliver, and the prospective 60 million dinars of World Bank funding for 2027 to 2029 would significantly expand the resources available if it is confirmed. The signals to watch are how quickly the 370 targeted firms are reached, whether the export and job gains seen in earlier cohorts are repeated, and whether the women-led allocation translates into a measurable rise in female participation in industry.
Sources: Jordan News Agency.
