Murad proposes several mega-projects to Gulf Arab investors

AMMAN — Amman Chamber of Commerce (ACC) President Issa Murad proposed several mega-projects to Gulf Arab investors on Saturday.

During a working session at the Gulf-Jordanian Economic Communication Forum, Murad detailed investment opportunities in the education, health, agriculture, construction, telecommunications and tourism sectors, according to an ACC statement.

He suggested establishing a JD81 million glass dappen dish factory, the Aqaba University for Technology at a total cost of around JD10 million, a JD51 million hospital, a tractor assembly plant, a garment factory in addition to other chemical industries ventures, the statement said.

Murad said the forum provided a platform to brainstorm ways to enhance the existing economic cooperation between Jordan and the Gulf Cooperation Council's (GCC) member states. 

He added that businesspeople from Jordan and the GCC are working on increasing trade, expertise exchange and implementing joint economic ventures. 

Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour inaugurated the forum on Thursday, underlying  Jordan's "brotherly and deep-rooted" relations with GCC countries and expressing hope that the forum will help expand bilateral economic ties.

"As a result of these distinctive and brotherly relations, the volume of GCC member states' investments in Jordan amounted to $40 billion by the end of last year, distributed among all... sectors," Ensour said.

He also said that the volume of trade exchange between the GCC countries and Jordan reached around $5.7 billion in 2014, commending the preferential treatment given to Jordanian expatriates in the Gulf States who channel around $3 billion a year into Jordan's economy, Petra reported.

Expressing appreciation for the Gulf countries' endless support to Jordan, Ensour said the GCC's grant to the Kingdom has contributed immensely to improving the infrastructure and basic services, Petra said.

Calling for more cooperation between Jordan and the Gulf countries, Ensour said that Jordan's population has increased dramatically over the past few years from 7 to 11 million, of which 1.4 million are Syrians, in addition to 500,000 Iraqis, 45,000 Yemenis and 35,000 Libyans, apart from more than 2 million Palestinian refugees.