AMMAN. In a quiet but significant shift for the Levant, Jordan has emerged as the region’s industrial leader. It topped the UNIDO Competitive Industrial Performance (CIP) Index for 2024. This distinction transforms the measurement and presentation of the kingdom’s economy.
The Amman Chamber of Industry’s annual meeting celebrated the milestone as evidence that Jordan’s factories and export networks have become significant players. They are key drivers of growth. In 2024, Jordan’s national exports reached a record JD 8.6 billion and found buyers in over 145 countries, according to the chamber. This evidence demonstrates that focused industrial policy can create important opportunities.
This gap comes from high energy bills, raw material prices, and shipping costs. These risks could slow progress unless policy and investment address the problem.
What’s striking is how Jordan turned constraints into strengths. Long-standing initiatives like Qualifying Industrial Zones (QIZs), preferential trade links, and targeted apparel clusters helped the kingdom connect to global value chains, especially in garments and light manufacturing, well before the headlines arrived. Those early trade corridors laid the foundation for the export relationships that now appear in the CIP ranking.
So what’s next? This recognition places pressure and provides an opportunity for policymakers to turn ranking prestige into lasting gains. They can do this with smarter subsidies for energy efficiency, targeted support to lower logistics costs, and incentives for higher-tech investment that could help Jordan move up the value chain. If these elements come together, the story might shift from “industrial leader” to “industrial innovator,” turning a historic ranking into the start of a deeper transformation.
For a kingdom often mentioned in discussions about geopolitics and tourism, this moment reshapes its future with a focus on factories, engineers, and export routes. It also raises an intriguing question: can Jordan turn its current success into years of industrial leadership in the region?
