UK PM meets with Jerash businesswomen

AMMAN — UK Prime Minister Theresa May on Thursday met with several women from the Jerash business community, who implemented home based production projects in the northern Jordanian city.

A British embassy spokesperson said that the meeting, which took place at the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature’s Wild Jordan Centre in Amman, focused on projects that seeks to empower women and support their abilities to cope with family burdens, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

The spokesperson added that May expressed her country’s keenness to continue supporting efforts aimed at empowering women and guaranteeing their pivotal role in society, noting that the UK has offered £2.5 million to the women empowerment programme in Jordan.

Jerash Mayor Ali Gogazeh voiced his appreciation of the British government that cooperated with the Arab women project fund in implementing several projects and presenting financial and in-kind assistance, benefiting a total of 80 women.

The Arab women project fund, which was launched in 2015, aims at empowering 150,000 Arab women in Jordan, Egypt and Palestine through providing them with economic opportunities to increase their contributions to the economy and the labour market. 

The fund, which will continue receiving financing of some £10 million from the UK ministry of international development, targets women entrepreneurs and focuses on enabling them to come up with new services and products.