Heike Harmgart

Heike Harmgart

EBRD Country Director for Jordan

Finance / Jordan

“Fintech is definitely is a good investment opportunity in Jordan”

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is an active presence in Jordan, having completed 42 projects and investing almost €1 billion euros into Jordan. The Business Report met up with the EBRD’s Country Director for Jordan Heike Harmgart in Amman to ask what investment opportunities are up next for the influential development bank, especially in tourism, fintech and energy.

What kind of potential does Jordan have in FinTech?

There is a lot of FinTech and blockchain companies coming out of accelerators, so FinTech is definitely is a good investment opportunity in Jordan. For example, there is a finance platform called Liwwa, which is a P2P lending platform. I find that a lot of things are come together. The Central Bank has now a committee on FinTech working with all the banks and the FinTech startup companies, like Liwwa, in terms of finding regulations for new FinTech.

How is the EBRD getting involved in tourism development?

We started investing in the Ayla Oasis project in Aqaba, which has not only the potential to attract foreign direct investment and tourists, but also create sustainable jobs in the private sector. We are currently working with a number of tourism developers to set up a training center for tourism skills in Aqaba.

How is the ERDB supporting private sector growth in tourism?

We see hospitality and retail as great growth opportunities in Jordan. This is why we started small-scale projects in finance, such as a shopping mall in Amman and a training center for retail skills. We have since trained several hundreds of Jordanians in order for them to find jobs in the retail sector.

What is your strategic vision for EBRD in Jordan?

The recent years, Jordan has been modeling what can be achieved in renewable energy, especially solar and wind. We have witnessed Jordan develop both a legislative framework and implement a poll purchase agreement. This has allowed them to attract a growing private sector, starting an entire program for reverse auction competitive bidding. This has been a massive achievement for us as well. Half of what we invested was in the energy sector, given that Jordan was really lacking with indigenous energy resources.