Share
AMMAN — The Jordan Strategy Forum (JSF) issued a policy paper titled "Jordan and Economic Corridors: Strategic Opportunities in a Changing Global Economy".
The policy paper addressed the rapid transformations in international trade and transport networks, and opportunities that emerging economic corridors offer Jordan to enhance its standing in the regional and global trade and connectivity system.
The Forum explained that geopolitical tensions, frequent disruptions to supply chains and escalating concerns related to trade and energy security have prompted many countries to diversify their transport routes and reduce reliance on a limited number of maritime routes and strategic bottlenecks.
As a result, economic corridors are no longer limited to the construction of roads and railways, but now encompass maritime and land transport, energy networks, digital infrastructure, logistics services and industrial and investment cooperation.
The paper reviewed "key" corridors and initiatives that have recently reshaped trade between Asia, the Middle East and Europe.
The corridors are China’s Belt and Road Initiative, the Trans-Caspian Middle East Corridor (Middle Corridor), the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), the Iraq-Turkey Development Corridor (Development Road), the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) and the Jordanian-Syrian-Turkish Transport Initiative.
The JSF emphasised the need to view these initiatives, not as competing alternatives, but a network of integrated routes Jordan can leverage within a multi-corridor national strategy.
It explained that relying on a single route could increase Jordan’s vulnerability to geopolitical risks and trade disruptions, while diversifying routes offers greater flexibility, expands trade connectivity options and strengthens the economy’s resilience.
The IMEC is among the "most influential" routes for Jordan’s future options in trade, transport and energy, along with the Jordanian-Syrian-Turkish Transport Initiative, which offers a "valuable" opportunity to revitalise its traditional land routes through the Levant through utilising and developing the Hejaz Railway, the forum noted.
The IMEC comprises an eastern route connecting Indian ports to ports in the Arabian Gulf via maritime transport and a northern route linking the Gulf states to the Mediterranean and Europe through a network of railways and roads.
It also includes projects for electrical interconnection, hydrogen pipelines, fiber optic cables and advanced digital infrastructure, JSF said.
According to estimates in the paper, the corridor requires around 2,800 kilometres of new railway infrastructure, with total investments estimated at around $20 billion based on available preliminary data.
Various studies also indicate the potential to reduce transit time via the corridor by 40 per cent to 51 per cent, cut transport costs by about 30 per cent, and achieve annual logistical savings exceeding $5 billion.
These savings are particularly important for high-value industries, such as pharmaceuticals, electronics, automotive components and advanced manufacturing, whose competitiveness is directly affected by shipping costs, speed of market access and the reliability of supply chains, the paper said.
It also indicated that the Jordanian-Syrian-Turkish transport initiative could provide an integrated route linking the Gulf states, via Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and Turkey, to European markets, noting that this route relies more heavily on rehabilitating existing infrastructure compared with projects requiring entirely new transport networks.
This could allow for its reactivation in a "shorter" timeframe and at relatively lower costs, provided that regional stability and coordination are ensured, and damaged infrastructure is rehabilitated, the paper added.
In the analysis of trade among the countries included in the integrated route, which combines the economic corridor and the Jordanian-Syrian-Turkish transport initiative, the paper showed that the volume of intra-regional trade reached around $740 billion in 2024.
It also indicated that the EU accounted for around 37.7 per cent of this trade, followed by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries at 24.5 per cent, and then India at 19.4 per cent.
In this context, the forum emphasised that these figures reflect a "broad" trade base that can be built on among the countries of the corridor. However, they also show that Jordan still holds a "limited" share of trade flows within the countries included in the integration process.
The forum also estimated the total untapped export opportunities among the countries in the integration process at about $681.8 billion, concentrated primarily with the EU ($311.8 billion), and followed by the Gulf Cooperation Council countries ($131.1 billion), Turkey ($121.6 billion) and India ($111.8 billion).
The forum stressed the importance of ensuring that the economic benefits of the corridor are not limited to the large economies that currently hold the largest share of intra-regional trade.
These benefits must extend to countries "less integrated" into regional trade, including Jordan, to facilitate access for their products to European and Asian markets and to encourage investment in their infrastructure to enhance their integration into global value chains, it added.
The importance of trade connectivity for Jordan stems from the nature of its small, open economy and its heavy reliance on foreign markets, said the forum.
The average value of exports and imports of goods and services stood at about 101.4 per cent of GDP during the period 2022–2024, placing Jordan among the most trade-dependent economies in the region, it said.
The forum affirmed that this level of trade openness makes the efficiency of transport, logistics and transit procedures key determinants of the performance of the Jordanian economy, not merely supporting factors.
