Investment Insurance Information No. (157)
The number of Jordanian workers in the six large hotels owned by Social Security is approximately (1300) employees and workers currently, which is a good number that perhaps represents more than (90%) of the workforce in these hotels.
If we know that the size of the tourism investment portfolio of the Social Security Fund currently amounts to (291) million dinars, and it is invested in major hotels in Amman, the Dead Sea, Petra, Aqaba and a number of tourist resorts, then what is required is for the Fund and its arm to continue in tourism investment, which is the National Company for Tourism Development in “Jordan” or to localize all jobs in the tourism security facilities without exception, as Jordanian youth, males and females, are now able to fill all vacancies and jobs in this sector and are qualified to do so.
On the other hand, I believe that the Social Security Investment Fund should direct a large portion of its investments to productive projects that employ a large number of national workers. We are living through a difficult economic period in which we suffer from alarming and worsening unemployment rates. We must invest every dinar in projects that generate job opportunities. The Social Security Investment Fund must immediately heed the King’s message, directives, and concern for the issue of unemployment, when he recently said, “We must confront the threat of unemployment and take courageous decisions in this regard.” This is especially true since the Social Security Investment Fund is the largest strategic investment fund in the country, with assets currently approaching 12.3 billion dinars. This necessarily requires starting to reduce the government bond portfolio to provide significant liquidity within a year from now, to be pumped into vital productive projects that not only generate income but also generate job opportunities for Jordanians. This is a very important step to restore the Social Security Investment Fund’s reputation as a major national player in combating unemployment, and the ball is now in the court of the Social Security Investment Board. We will return, God willing, to discuss the size of Jordanian employment in social security projects and investments.