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A press conference
was held yesterday morning to announce
the launch of the “First Gulf Forum”,
the largest Gulf Arab conglomerate in
Jordan , in cooperation with the Jordan
Investment Board, Aqaba Special Economic
Zone Authority (ASEZA) and Aqaba
Development Corporation (ADC), and in
which major Gulf and Jordanian investors
from all Arab and Gulf countries will
participate. The purpose of convening
the “Gulf in Jordan ” meeting, scheduled
for May 9-11, 2006, is to highlight the
most important aspects around which
investment in the Arab world revolves
and present investment opportunities to
investors and capitals in the Arab Gulf
region and Jordan .
The Conference
President, H.E. Mr. Riyad Sharaf, took
part in the press conference, and hailed
the distinguished Jordanian Kuwaiti Gulf
relations in all political, economic,
commercial and investment fields, and
stressed Jordan's desire to advance
these relations towards more expanded
areas for the better good and benefit of
the two brotherly people.
During the press
conference, Mr. Riyad Sharaf stressed
the Jordanian government's determination
to eliminate all forms of administrative
bureaucracy that face Jordanian, Arab
and foreign businessmen and investors,
as well as to amend the necessary laws
and legislations in a manner that would
guarantee the growth of their business
and investments in the atmosphere of
freedom and economic openness that
prevails in Jordan.
Mr. Sharaf indicated
the major and encouraging development of
Kuwaiti Jordanian economic relations
over the past five years, raising
Kuwaiti investments in Jordan to more
than Four billion Dollars and achieving
85 million Dollars in foreign trade
between the two countries. Mr. Sharaf
said that Kuwaiti investments in Jordan
exceed four billion Dollars, centered in
service, trade and tourism sectors, in
addition to other investments. New
investments by Gulf investors are
expected to be announced during the
conference in May, the purpose of which
is to increase the volume of Gulf
investments in Jordan .
Mr. Riyad Sharaf
spoke about the reason for convening the
“Gulf in Jordan ” in Jordan , hailing
Jordan 's attractive investment
opportunities for Gulf investors and
businessmen and the facilities it
provides to all investors from all Arab
and Gulf countries. Mr. Sharaf added
that the conference's sessions will
focus on: encouraging investment from a
realistic point of view, tourism growth
in Jordan and its impact on the status
of investment, the Aqaba investments and
their new horizons, the experience of
Arab banks in Jordan, and the reason for
attracting investments and projects to
Jordan, like: the Gulf Finance House ,
Al-Khourafi Group, Jordan Investment
Trust, Al-Bonyan International Group,
Bayan for Investment, Global Investment
House, the UAE investors Al-Baddad
Group, as well as Ayla Oasis project ,
the Dubai Holding Company ….etc .
Furthermore, not to
mention other Jordanian partnership with
Int investors Projects; Tala Bay ,
Taameeer, Red Sea resort, projects
….etc.
Also participating in
the press conference was Dr. Ma'en Nsour,
CEO of the Jordan Investment Board, who
indicated the encouraging incentives and
privileges, provided to investors and
businessmen from all Arab, foreign and
Gulf countries, and who said that
Kuwaiti investments in Jordan have
exceeded four billion Dollars. Dr. Nsour
also referred to the availability of the
most important investment friendly
factors designed to attract the largest
number possible of Arab, Gulf and
foreign investments to Jordan, namely
the security, stability, legislative
climate, and modern laws that encourage
foreign investments, as well as a group
of free trade agreements that Jordan
signed with the United States and the
European Union, in addition to the
freedom of capital and profit movement.
During the press
conference, Dr. Nsour said that Kuwait
is the country with the most investments
in Jordan , where Kuwaiti investments
exceed four billion Dollars in a variety
of industrial, service, financial and
banking sectors.
On the other hand, HE
Mr. Saleh Keilani, Commissioner for
Economic Development & Investment
Affairs at Aqaba Special Economic Zone
Authority (ASEZA), expressed his
pleasure at hosting the "Gulf in Jordan
", and spoke about the importance of
Gulf-Jordanian relations. He reviewed
the beginnings of the Aqaba Special
Economic Zone (ASEZ) and spoke about the
privileges and incentives of ASEZA in
terms of infrastructure, the exceptional
investment climate, as well as
privileges, incentives and facilitations
provided to businessmen, project owners
and investors inside and outside Jordan
.
HE Mr. Keilani gave a
detailed presentation about the
objective of establishing ASEZ, namely
to create a developmental economic
engine that provides a competitive
investment climate to attract a large
volume of foreign and Arab investments,
and particularly Gulf investments. HE
Mr. Keilani reviewed the goals of ASEZ's
strategic plan, namely to create 70,000
new job opportunities through investment
projects in Aqaba by the end of the year
2020, and to attract investments of
around 6 million Dollars. HE Mr. Keilani
added that the UAE investments in ASEZ
through registered companies is
approximately 15,660,000 Dollars total
of registered companies.
HE Mr. Keilani
reviewed ASEZA's achievements, which was
able to attract 2 billion Dollars worth
of investments in mainly tourism related
projects, where the tourism sector
constituted more than 50% of total
investments in the past few years, and
the increase rate of residential,
commercial and service real estate
construction in Aqaba registered 65% in
2005.
HE Mr. Saleh Keilani
also spoke about Aqaba's tourist
importance, describing it as the gate to
the golden triangle made up of Aqaba,
Petra and Wadi Rum. Mr Keilani referred
to the extraordinary circumstances
witnessed by the region in the past five
years, and said that ASEZA adopted a
tourism strategy that aims to revitalize
and encourage tourism with participation
from the private sector by achieving
accomplishments in this regard.
Moreover, an increase
in the number of air travelers was
noted, an increase to 50% last year
compared with the previous year.
Additionally, shipping quantities and
the tourism volume to the city of Aqaba
increased from 238,000 in 2000 to
450,000 in 2005.
The press conference
was also attended by Engineer Emad
Keilani, VP Investment Affairs &
Marketing of the Aqaba Development
Company.
During the press
conference, Engineer Keilani said that
the Aqaba Development Company was able
to fulfill the objective of its
establishment, so that it is now the
executive arm of ASEZA and is considered
one of the major shareholders in the
“Aqaba Saraya” and a number of other
projects. The Kuwaiti Real Estate
Company also contributed to the
warehouses village project, whose cost
reached 80 million Dollars. Engineer
Keilani referred to the products market
and the feasibility study for the
workers housing project which will be
implemented in the appropriate areas. It
also attracted investors to develop Al-Yamaniyeh
highlands. Engineer Keilani talked about
the project for redeveloping the main
port and transforming the current port
area into a multi-use tourist area,
indicating that investment in the ports
reaches 800 million Dollars, while
investment in real estate development
reaches one billion Dollars. |
Gallery
Gulf in Jordan II -
