AMMAN — Saudi plans to set up an investment firm
in Jordan will jump-start the Kingdom’s economy following a severe blow caused
by lockdowns under the
COVID-19 pandemic, and the subsequent Russian war in
Ukraine, economists said.
اضافة اعلان
Recently, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
announced plans for establishing a public investment fund of five regional
companies, which will see Saudi investments emerging in Jordan, Iraq, Bahrain,
Oman, and Sudan.
Prince Mohammed, who is also Saudi Arabia’s prime
minister, heads the Council of Economic and Development Affairs, and the Board
of Directors of the Public Investment Fund.
The planned investments, with a target value of $24
million, follow the launch of the Saudi-Egyptian Investment Company in August.
The five firms to-be will invest in several
strategic sectors including, infrastructure, real estate development, mining,
healthcare, financial services, food and agriculture, manufacturing, and
telecommunications and technology.
Jawad Al-Anani, a former Jordanian deputy prime
minister for economic affairs, said Jordan and Saudi Arabia should meet to
explore mutual interests ahead of setting up any investment. He also noted that
Amman must present Riyadh with a proposal on potential lucrative investments in
the Kingdom.
In an interview with
Jordan News, he proposed
launching a logistics hub in the southern Jordanian city of Maan, as a
gathering point for goods bound for Saudi Arabia. The center can also be used
for storage and cooling.
Anani also recommended organizing the commercial
movement with other Gulf Arab states, and forming a transit area for goods
destined for those countries. He said that the plan, if it gets off the ground,
could create more than 6,000 jobs.
He said he believed that
Saudi Arabia, a regional
power broker, is working to strengthen its relations with neighboring countries
to “acquire a kind of protection, especially since we are witnessing a change in
its foreign policies”.
Economist
Wajdi Al-Makhamreh told
Jordan News that Saudi Arabia is leaning toward initiating an economic bloc in the Middle
East “to achieve economic and political integration between the countries”.
He explained that after the rise in oil prices,
liquidity became available for Gulf countries, especially Saudi Arabia, “which
made them move toward establishing more investment projects, and alliances with
other Arabs, including Jordan”.
He pointed out that all future investments in Jordan
should be geared towards the transport sector, the extraction of untapped
minerals, and agriculture.
Makhamreh said Jordan must provide facilities to the
investors, and implement accountability and transparency in its dealings. He
called for appointing competent people to manage the hoped-for investments.
He asserted that Jordan must attract more
investments to help make its 10-year
Economic Modernization Vision a success.
Economist Mohammad Al-Basheer said that Jordan needs
the Saudi investment, especially if these projects “are related to establishing
a railway, improving infrastructure, in addition to agricultural projects”.
He told
Jordan News that if these investments
do not address the problem of the structure of the national economy, “it would
be as if we had achieved nothing”.
Basheer explained that the methodology that drew
Jordan in the last period as a service country was wrong, “given that Jordan
today must develop, and be an industrial and agricultural country”.
As for the
economist
Mazen Irsheid, he emphasized that any foreign investment is important
to Jordan, especially that in the past few years, “Jordan has been suffering
from a decline in foreign investment”.
He noted that these investments will contribute to the
employment of a large number of workers, thus alleviating the woes of
unemployment, help raise the foreign currency reserves in the Central Bank of
Jordan, strengthen the Jordanian Dinar, and stabilize the national monetary
system.
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