Plan or vision?

Amidst criticism that the government is forming 16 committees composed, on average, of 80 per cent government representatives and only 20 per cent private sector representatives (with some representatives belonging to several committees) to set the vision for economic development of the country, another Dead Sea gathering emerged.

The meeting is a poor substitute for a full partnership with society in the making of the blueprint that the Royal letter decreed.

Instead of having a wide and deep representation of society, we see yet another Dead Sea conference and certain small yet dangerous changes in some of the phrases and titles when referring to the plan.

The changes may seem negligible, but they have vast ramifications that should be monitored.

Let’s start with the minor changes first.

At the core of King Abdullah’s directive is a blueprint or plan of action for the economy.

The way to do it is through a participatory approach.

The wording we hear now is that the government is designing a “vision” for Jordan for the next 10 years. Yet, as we all know, a “vision” is not a “plan of action” or a “blueprint”. So what became of the plan of action?

Did it go the same direction as the Jordan National Agenda, which was superior to the current effort?

The agenda had a large and wide participation, and in most cases, the private sector headed the pillars and guided teams that were at least 50 per cent from the private sector.

Therefore, it started better, much better!

Furthermore, the agenda did not change from plan of action and blueprint into an indicative plan until the last days; in fact the purpose (from an action plan to an indicative plan) was changed only a week before the agenda was launched.

The current effort has quickly started becoming known as a vision. What happened? 

The committees being the ones that will do the work, the meeting at the Dead Sea is meaningless. It may be construed to be a smoke screen trying to show that the private sector is participating.

Yes, hundreds at the Dead Sea were supposed to come with their ideas ready, discuss them in their selected areas, and present them to some government stenographer(s). Then they would be turned around and made into the “blueprint” that someone made into a “vision”.

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