New city scheme draws mixed reactions

AMMAN — Several members of the private sector have shown mixed reactions towards the government’s national project to establish a new city in the Kingdom, expressing both optimistic and negative views over the newly announced plan. 

The new city project, to be located to the east of Amman and southwest of Zarqa, was officially announced by the government on November 4, describing it as “one of the key strategic schemes” and a “significant step aimed at providing a better lifestyle for citizens, improving services and offering residences with lower costs,” according to a statement sent to The Jordan Times. 

The project is part of the government’s efforts to stimulate economic growth, and a strategic response to challenges facing the national economy through contributing to enhancing investment in national resources and assets, the statement said. 

However, the government “is not ready for such a megaproject,” economist Zayyan Zawaneh told The Jordan Times, explaining that “building a new city would take years in any given economy, but the situation of Jordan is even worse.”

“The government is not taking into consideration that this project could take even decades, and before they embark on this, they should find short-term solutions to issues such as the ever-growing public debt, unemployment and inequality between the Kingdom’s citizens,” he continued. 

“The announcement made appears to be confusing, and if they are really planning to count on the support of the private sector, the announcement should have been made along with such partners,” Zawaneh added. 

The expert’s views are opposed to those expressed by economist and commentator, Issam Qadamani, who told The Jordan Times that “it was about time we see a project like this one, and this new city should have been built many years ago”.

“Five years from now, we will see many new business and even entire sectors flourishing in Jordan, as the new city presents huge new opportunities in order to address the economic problem in the Kingdom,” Qadamani added. 

As for the employment issue, the columnist believes that “many new jobs will be created as new business opportunities emerge, not to mention the positive impact that the new infrastructures and public services will have on the job market”.

Economist Wajdi Makhamreh shared positive views as well, noting that “eventually, building the new city will encourage investments in several sectors and boost the labour market”.

“However, we still have not heard the views of the private sector regarding the project, and even though the government mentioned the cooperation with financial institutions and banks, they were not clear about the partnerships and agreements reached,” he added. 

“Many promising projects have been announced before and nothing happened, so before we jump to any conclusions, the financial sources for the execution of the project must be made clear,” Makhamreh concluded.

His views echo those of President of the Jordan Engineers Association (JEA) ​Majed Tabbaa, who stated that “the government needs to be more transparent about this project.”
“There is a lot of information that we still don’t know and we can’t decide whether this project could be beneficial or not without having a complete picture of the plan,” continued Tabbaa, pointing out that “by now, all stakeholders should have been consulted, including  the JEA.”

“The government stated that they are going to rely on investors for the execution of this project, but what does this project have that would attract investors?” Tabbaa asked, pointing out that “the only thing that we have in Jordan right now is human capital”.
“Furthermore, if this project is really going to be implemented, all the current obstacles and challenges that Amman is facing must be taken into account. Transportation, environmental and infrastructure issues must be addressed, and their replication must be prevented,” said the expert. 

Zuhair Omari, president of the Jordan Housing Developers Association (JHDA), said the new city project should have been studied more thoroughly.

“We as private sector should have been involved in the discussions even before announcing it…This is a nice and good idea but the priority should be to improving the current situation in Amman,” he told The Jordan Times.
“We need to solve problems that Amman faces at present. Currently, there are five million people in Amman and it is crowded, no public parks, heavy traffic, no public transportation,” he said.
“The priority should be given now to Amman and the urgent need to improve its infrastructure,” he said.