JORDAN: Country for sale?

 

Some Jordanians are steaming mad over plans to sell off huge swaths of the country to private investors abroad.

On Sunday the Jordanian government announced plans to sell its Red Sea port of Aqaba to a group of United Arab Emirates investors for $5 billion. The government is also selling the King Hussein Hospital and its surrounding properties for $2 billion to the Emirates. The capital of Amman also plans to sell a large piece of property in the heart of the city to a Lebanese bigwig for $1.5 billion.

The government says it's trimming down in an era of smaller government. But critics say these deals lack transparency and that the government is raking in dough it will never share with ordinary Jordanians, who are feeling the crush of rising fuel and food costs.

Making matters worse, the property sell-offs are to foreigners (albeit fellow Arabs). 

Zaki Bani Rsheid, the outspoken leader of the opposition Islamic Action Front, said an earful about the situation to AFP:

These projects are not designed to benefit the poor, but only wealthy and influential Jordanians, People's patience has limits, and I think that in the coming days there will be an explosion, a very big explosion, and nobody can predict its repercussions and/or results.

— Borzou Daragahi in Beirut

Photo: The Jordanian Red Sea port of Aqaba. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Comments

[Massoud Derhally]

The reporting surrounding this entire Aqaba project is not accurate. No one has sold the port of Aqaba. Below is a link to what is actually taking place in Aqaba:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aCYmquD2_Kqw

[Mohanned]

"era of smaller government"
Actually, the government is getting bigger and bigger every single day, from the social security net to the new housing initiative to more people being employed by both the government and the other committees being created. We now have over 40 committees with a budget of over a biilion JDs. And since 1999, 14,000 were employed by governmental entities outside what is called in jordan "tashkeelat" which refers to official requests for needed employees; in other words those 14,000 can be considered EXTRA..

The government became a co-opting mechanism to buy social stability and security, so any claim that they are becoming smaller is flawed and goes against the facts on the ground.

[The Black Iris]

I would agree with critics that many of these privatization deals do lack transparency, and in many cases, privatization has only sought to make a quick buck by selling off national assets. In truth, many of these once-public institutions required better management and that could have been easily privatized (i.e. outsourced) to foreign companies with the right tools and know-how, instead of simply selling it off.

As for the average Jordanian not getting any of this money. Zaki Bani Rsheid and the likely anti-privatization critics are not always the sharpest tools in the shed. Their political capital stems from the perception that they are "defenders of the poor" when in fact they've done little for the poor.

What are they looking for? A handout? Should the money earned from privatization deals be put in brown paper envelops and mailed to citizens? It's being spent on national programs and national needs and it will have little impact anyways. And on the other hand, privatization in many cases has created better efficiency, more jobs, and more opportunities for foreign investment.

Regardless, I still reiterate my earlier points that more transparency is required as well as outsourcing management as opposed to assets.

Thanks for the interesting piece Borzou

Naseem Tarawnah
The Black Iris of Jordan
www.black-iris.com