Minister of Labor Maen Qatamin Thursday said there are still gender and geographic gaps that hinder women's economic empowerment and participation in Jordan.

In a virtual meeting by the Jordan Forum for Business and Professional Women in cooperation with the Center for International Private Enterprise, Qatamin stressed the need to establish a comprehensive database on the employment of women.

He said some services sectors are still not ready to accommodate and adapt to the fourth economic revolution and digital transformation. Both of which will be prioritized in the upcoming stage, he added.

The government has provided a credit line of JD 350,000 to support youth entrepreneurship in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector across the Kingdom and JD 200 million to protect the jobs of 180,000 Jordanians.

Vice President of the Jordan Chamber of Commerce and the representative of the services sector Jamal al-Rifai stressed that the service sector has been severely affected by the coronavirus crisis. He pointed out that the service sector accounts for a third of Jordan's GDP and employs more than 17 percent of citizens.

The results of a study by the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) were discussed The study showed that the consultancy sector is one of the main employers of women in Jordan (38 percent) with a JD 262 million contribution to the GDP in 2016.